Quite the Problem
by ForeverBrunette
Summary: Lucy is having headaches caused by something no one understands. Somehow, though, it is connected to Zeref. Lucy now has to choose between accepting whatever plans he has for her or fighting against him. But what everyone wants to know is: why her? Rated M for language just to be safe.
1. The Headaches

**Okay, so I decided to try something new. I got the general idea from a story called** _ **Lost**_ **by CelestialShadowDragonSlayer1. So I decided to write a story taking some aspects of that story and using it in mine. It's not amazing, by no means. But I tried hard to make it work. I hope you will read and review. My policy is that I won't update until I have at least one review. Hope you like it.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own FairyTail. Hiro Mashima does, though.**

*LUCY POV*

The guild was rowdy as always and is only getting worse. I laid my head against the counter top at the bar and closed my eyes. I took slow deep breaths to try to calm my oncoming headache. It was starting at the back of my skull and seemed to crawl through my brain to my forehead like always. My blonde hair fell forward to cover my face. I groaned from the building pain and sat up to pull my hair into a messy ponytail.

"Good morning Lucy," Mira said from the kitchen door.

I gave her a tired smile. "Morning Mira," I said sleepily.

Mira walked over to me with a concerned expression on her face. "Are you okay?"

I smiled a little wider and sat up a little straighter despite the protest from my skull. "Yeah I'm fine. Don't worry about me. You'll get wrinkles. Then you wouldn't be able to model anymore and Jenny will take your place." I knew it was low to bring Mira's rival up but it was the only way to distract her.

A strained smile replaced her frown as her demon soul seemed to leak out from her pores. "Ah, yes. You make a good point." She turned around and disappeared into the kitchen. I sighed and slumped in my chair again. I rested my elbows against the counter and slowly massaged my temples to help ease the tension beneath my scalp.

A sudden tap on my shoulder startled me out of my pain-filled daze. I turned around quickly and came face to face with Wendy. Her big brown eyes stared at me from under her blue bangs, her hair hanging behind her shoulders and rested against her back. She had her hands clasped in front of her and was fidgeting nervously.

"Lucy," she said softly. "Are you okay? You seem off today. And you slightly insulted Mira."

"Ah," I sighed. "I'm fine. And I'll have to apologize to her later today." I scratched the back of my head nervously. I exhaled a deep breath, the pain nagging at the back of my head again, causing me to wince. "I just have this horrible headache. It's been coming around every so often since we got back from the Grand Magic Games."

"Do you need help?" She seemed genuinely concerned for my well-being. I smiled slightly at her efforts.

I contemplated the pros and cons of healing my headache and decided the pros outweighed the cons in this situation. I nodded and watched her tiny hands hover around my head. Her pale skin glowed a light greenish-blue color and the pain creeping around my head slowly lessened until it was a slight tickle at the back of my head. Wendy removed her hands and stepped back, her white teeth gnawing at her bottom lip.

"That's all I can do," she said nervously. "But Lucy, you need to be careful about those headaches. Try to find me so I can heal it if it comes back. Be wary when you get them because something felt off when I was healing you. It was as if the pain was a sentient being and was trying to take control."

I gave her a puzzled look and considered the idea of something with a purpose living inside my head causing debilitating pain. "That's…kind of unsettling."

She nodded and then gave me a big grin. "Well now that it's been healed, do you want me to get you anything?"

I smiled at the young girl genuinely, now that I was no longer suffering. "Thanks but Mira should be joining us soon to ask for our orders."

Right on time, Mira popped out from the kitchen and came over to us. She gave us her signature smile. "What do you girls want today?"

I smiled at her apologetically. "Hey sorry for earlier, Mira. I just had a really bad headache," I explained. I rubbed the back of my head with a nervous smile.

Her smile brightened instantly as she put her hand against her cheek. "Oh it's quite alright Lucy. I understand how those days go. I'm just happy you're not sincerely upset with me. I sure hope that headache doesn't come back."

"Me too, Mira. Me too." My eyes wandered down to the counter top in thought as I spoke.

I gave her my usual order of a strawberry milkshake and turned around to observe the rest of the guild as it neared the peak of its volume and excitement for the day. Natsu had just entered with Happy and sat down with Erza and Gray with smiles on their faces. They all seemed to be laughing over something at their table, and it made me a little jealous that none of them had come over to say hi to me. I decided I wouldn't wait for them to come to me and stood up. I made my way over to them and stood at the end of the table with Wendy following silently behind me.

I smiled to my best friends as cheerily as I could. "Hey guys," I greeted them when they all looked up with smiles of their own. "What's the agenda for today?"

Erza spoke first. "Well, the boys and I were just about to go on a mission today." The guys nodded in agreement and Happy nodded as he gnawed on his fish.

"Oh that's perfect!" I exclaimed. "I need to pay my rent anyway."

Suddenly, the smiled disappeared off everyone's face. I looked at them warily, my smile slowly losing its luster. Gray and Natsu looked at Erza and then excused themselves to order at the bar, leaving only Erza, me, and Wendy still silently observing.

"Erza," I said cautiously. "Am I missing something?"

"Well, Lucy," she started slowly. "We would like to go on this mission alone. We have known each other for so long and yet have never gone on a mission with just the three of us. So we thought maybe now would be a good time. I really hope we haven't offended you. We just didn't want to hurt you."

I stared at her without saying a word, my half-smile stuck on my face. "I see. Well, I understand. I don't mind you guys spending some quality time together. After all, you guys were family way before I came into the picture. I'll just find another way to make my rent." With that, I turned and walked away without waiting for any response from Erza.

Weirdly enough, Wendy continued to follow me away to an empty table where Levy was reading a book with Gajeel watching her. Kinda creepy, if you ask me.

"Hey Levy," I chirped and plopped down on an empty seat next to her. Wendy sat next to Gajeel on my other side quietly. She started whispering something to Gajeel before they both looked at me and then the table. But I caught them stealing glances my way every so often.

Levy looked up from her book with a smile. "Hi Lucy," she greeted and put her book down.

Gajeel groaned before she could say anything else. "So you'll put your book down for Bunny Girl but not for your boyfriend?"

Levy glared at him. "Did you need my attention for anything important?"

He looked away sheepishly. "Well no, but that's not the point."

Levy nodded knowingly and looked back at me. "Now what do you need, Luce?"

I grinned and stuck my tongue out at Gajeel before looking back at Levy, ignoring his low growl. "Nothing really. Just wanted some company. Team Natsu is leaving for a mission soon. Something about wanting to bond as a family again." I waved my hand lightheartedly.

Levy's eyes seemed to narrow slightly. "Without you?"

"Well yeah. They were a family before I came into the picture. And with me constantly there, they haven't really had a chance to bond." I rolled my eyes. "Doesn't matter what they do."

I was shocked when I suddenly heard a light growl come out of Levy's throat. She's definitely been hanging out with Gajeel too much. I know they started dating the moment they walked back through our broken down guild doors six months ago—something about life being too short to ignore their feelings—but seriously, too much quality time.

"Levy, don't worry about it. Really, it's fine."

I watched her take a deep breath and relax in her chair before giving me an apologetic look. "Sorry Luce. I just got upset because you guys have always been together. And I know that it hurt you to not be brought along on a 'family' trip."

I smiled softly. "It's okay, Levy. I don't mind. I understand that they never got to really go on a mission together. I mean, it's not like teams have to be together on every mission. I know some teams go on separate missions from time to time."

Levy smiled and pat my shoulder lightly before turning to Gajeel who had been watching me curiously the entire time. Suddenly, he got up from the table and walked upstairs without saying a word. I looked at Levy with a questioning gaze but she just shrugged her shoulders. We watched Gajeel walk away for a little bit before Wendy followed him. We decided to ignore it and started making plans for the week. We talked about maybe going to lunch or coffee and then just started telling jokes. Mirajane gave me my milkshake and went back to the bar, leaving us to our giggles over our observations of the guild.

*BICKSLOW POV*

My team and I were gathered around a small table upstairs in the guild, talking about our next mission when Laxus suddenly lifted his head and turned his ear slightly towards the stairs. We all turned to the stairs to see Gajeel walking over to us with a frown on his face and Wendy following quietly. Laxus glared at him in an attempt keep him from approaching us. But it apparently didn't work. Though we did hear a strange squeak from behind him. I chuckled at Wendy before turning completely to Gajeel since we was standing closest to me and just staring.

"Can I help you?" I asked with a grin at Gajeel and winked at Wendy so she knew she didn't need to be nervous around us.

"I need your help," Gajeel said in a low voice, turning to all of the Raijinshuu.

Laxus looked at him curiously. "What do you need from us?"

Gajeel looked to Wendy. She cleared her throat and stood tall, her confidence coming out of nowhere. She looked at us all before speaking. "I think something is wrong with Lucy. She smells different. Wrong, almost. She usually smells like strawberries and vanilla but now she smells spicy. I don't know how else to explain it. She has an edge to her scent. Laxus, have you noticed it?" Wendy rested her eyes on Laxus Her eyes held a determination in them.

Laxus seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding slowly. His eyes never left hers. "You're right. She smells different," Laxus stated with a gruff voice.

Wendy nodded. "Lucy says she's been getting headaches since we came back from the GMG. Apparently they have been migraines and they really become a problem for her. I healed her today and I noticed something weird. There's something inside her head causing these headaches. It was like a small entity living within her and trying to take full control of her mind. Thus, the headaches. I think her change in smell and this being are related somehow."

We all stared at her in shock and awe. This was the most we've heard her talk since we met her. She was always so quiet. But not only was she speaking a lot, she was talking with so much confidence and certainty. Laxus was the first to shake himself out of his shock.

"So what exactly do you want from us?" He sounded as confused as we felt.

Wendy turned back to Gajeel to let him speak. "Well," he started. "We really need Bickslow. We want him to keep an eye on her soul or at least look at it to see if whatever is inside her head can be observed in her soul."

The entire table turned to me. "You want my help with Cosplayer?" I didn't really understand my role here.

"We just want you to tell us if her soul is different or anything is out of the ordinary." Gajeel sighed, as if repeating himself was a real inconvenience.

I raised a brow. "How do you know about my training?"

Recently I had been training my eyes to switch between reading souls and taking control over them. It took me years to learn, and even longer to perfect. I started about a year before the S-Class exams and had almost got it right when I was brought into the exams. I had to put the training on hold. And then there was that 7-year gap where I was in a kind of stasis for a while. So I had to nearly restart my training while training for the GMG. I didn't perfect it until a few months ago and I only told my group. So how the hell did Gajeel learn this?

Gajeel just looked at me with a brow raised. "Dragon hearing, dude." He only said three words, but those three words really made me feel stupid. I felt a slight burn on my cheeks when my group started chuckling under their breaths. You'd think after this long with Laxus, I would learn that dragons hear everything.

"Well, either way. Why should I help you?" I tried to seem defiant, but I don't think it worked by the way Gajeel seemed unfazed.

Gajeel just shrugged while Wendy looked at me with a hardness in her eyes I haven't seen before. I'm guessing it's because I wasn't dropping everything to help out the Cosplayer Queen.

Wendy was the one to speak up, to my surprise. "Whatever that thing is inside her, it felt dangerous. If it were to get what it wants, it might be a danger to the whole guild. Are you really willing to let your entire guild be put in harm's way just because you don't want to help?"

Damn that girl could be sassy. I sighed. "Fine. I'll do it. Bring her up here. I don't care what you say to her, just bring her up here."

Wendy beamed at me before turning on her heel and running down the stairs. She almost fell into Lucy's lap but managed to break her fall with the table. I laughed to myself, as did everyone else. She talked excitedly to Lucy before grabbing her wrist and dragging her up to us.

"You sure about this, Bix?" Laxus said under his breath.

I nodded without moving my gaze from Lucy's approaching form.

She stopped in front of our table with her hands pulling at the hem of her skirt slightly. She seemed nervous around us. She has a right to be. We all did her wrong. She has a right to be nervous about our intentions.

"Hey you don't have to be nervous, Cosplayer," I said calmly. "We won't do what we did at Fantasia ever again."

Lucy shot her head up to look at me with wide eyes. "Oh goodness no! I'm not nervous because of that. I'm nervous because Wendy said this was important, so I thought maybe I did something wrong." She looked down at her now clasped hands.

I stared at her. Evergreen raised a brow. Freed watched her with a soft smile. And Laxus…well Laxus was just staring at her with wide eyes. None of us knew what to think about this girl who should have harbored some amount of anxiety about us, but didn't. We didn't know what to do.

"You did nothing wrong, Miss Lucy," Freed said politely. "Bickslow just wanted to talk to you."

She turned her curious eyes to me again. "What did you need Bickslow?"

I cleared my throat. "I wanted to test a new magic on you. I was hoping you would be okay with being my test subject." I watched her for her reaction.

"What kind of magic?" She cocked her head to the side slightly, her long blonde hair falling across one of her eyes.

"It just lets me read your soul. Tells me if you're friend or foe. That kind of thing." I shrugged nonchalantly.

She smiled. "Well I'm flattered you chose me to be your guinea pig. I would love to help."

I nodded and removed my helmet from my face. I trained my eyes on her and focused on where her heart would be, in search of her soul. Finally her soul glowed from her chest and grew out to envelope her so I could see it better. I analyzed every inch of her golden glow that showed her kindness and warmth. When I looked at the top of her head, I saw what Wendy must have been talking about. It looked like a snake. A small black snake that darted across her soul in her head area. It seemed fast and out of it. It felt evil. It felt wrong. I didn't even want to continue looking at the thing that was marring her pure soul.

It seemed to sense I was watching it. It stopped moving at looked at me. And I could suddenly feel its anger. I felt like something slimy was crawling against my skin. I immediately shoved my helmet back on my head and tried to keep my voice steady when I said, "She's a friend." Gajeel seemed to pick up on my wavering voice. He looked to Wendy and she took Lucy's hand and urged her to go with her to the bar to order lunch. Lucy laughed and went with her, excusing herself from our space.

As soon as she left, I looked at Laxus. "We have to help her," I whispered with a shaky voice. I felt tears stinging at my eyes as I spoke, and I knew Laxus could smell them. "There's something not right. It wants her. It wants her to acknowledge and embrace it. We can't let that happen. We can't let it corrupt her pure soul."

 **Okay, I know there are multiple points of views. My plan is to make most of the chapter in Lucy's point of view, and then end it with one other character involved in her story as it goes. The character I choose will be different each chapter. Tell me what you think of this structure. I'm trying to keep working on this but it's difficult. I'm not as good as other writers. And my writing is a little weak since I haven't written in a while. Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks for reading!**


	2. The Plan

**Hey guys. I'm real sorry for the late update. A lot things got in the way and I could not find time to type this up. I started classes and just did not have time between that and work. Plus I was caught up in a horrible thing called WRITER'S BLOCK. It was pretty bad. But I cured it with some good old fashioned reading and listening to music. Also finding free time helped. So let me know what you think of this one. I hope I lived up to your expectations.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. Though it does sting a little.**

*LUCY POV*

Walking away from the second story, I turned around to see Bickslow talking to everyone. He seemed distressed and so did the rest of his group. When I turned to comment about it to Wendy, her lips were set in a tight line in concentration. Then her lips relaxed and set into a frown. She started mumbling to herself and sat me down at the bar while Mira was trying to talk Cana out of buying another barrel of wine.

"Cana, just sober up a little," Mira was saying. "It would help my bar if you would slow down."

Cana grinned. "And it would help my mind if it was further intoxicated. So bring me another barrel!" She slammed her jewels down on the table with a chuckle and walked away, not waiting for a reply.

Mira took the pouch and sighed before walking over to us. "What can I get you girls?"

I smiled sympathetically. "I just want an order of nachos, please," I said. I looked over to Wendy. "What do you want, Wendy? My treat."

Wendy looked up from concentrating on the grains in the wood to me and then Mira. She smiled when she heard I was paying. "I want a cheeseburger and a strawberry milkshake," she said excitedly. She turned to me. "You always say it's the best milkshake you've ever had, I figured I should try it."

I nodded in agreement and turned to Mira. "So that's what we're having. And it's all on me."

She smiled with a nod. "Alright, I'll get right on it as soon as I fulfill Cana's request." She disappeared into the kitchen, humming to herself and came out carrying a large barrel that she somehow was able to hold with one hand. I really don't want to get on her bad side if she can lift that amount of weight with just one hand…and she wasn't even sweating!

I turned to Wendy. "So what's up?" I raised my brow at her suddenly nervous expression.

She smiled as widely as her face could handle, but it was forced. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

I sighed and rolled my eyes heavenward. "Wendy," I started. I focused my gaze on her own with a determination. "I know something's up. I know you. You're like my little sister. And when my little sister doesn't like something, I know. It also doesn't help that you've been fussing around me since this morning. So what is going on?"

Wendy's smile fell in an instant. She looked up at me with defeated eyes; she just couldn't hold up this charade anymore. She sighed. "Well, you know how I said there was something alive roaming around in your head? Well I had Bickslow take a look at it to see if he might be able to see it in your soul. Apparently my theory was right because he did." Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. "Lucy, I don't want to scare you but he saw it. He claims it's evil and it has a plan for you that all of us should be wary about. It wants you to accept its nature so that it can put its plan into action."

I stared at the little girl in front of me with wide eyes. I looked up at the table where the Raijinshuu sat all still staring at Bickslow. He had his mask on but he seemed like he was shaking. Suddenly Laxus snapped his head back to look at me. He held my stare for a few seconds before finally lifting a hand and crooking his finger at me, beckoning me up there.

I looked around before pointing at myself, the question poised on my face. He nodded once, keeping his eyes on me. I turned around to Wendy and grabbed her hand, feeling the droplets of tears silently hitting my hand. I didn't say a word. She looked up at me and nodded in reassurance that she would be okay. I looked toward Levy's table to see her looking at us in confusion. Then she looked at Gajeel, still with the Raijinshuu. She looked at me for a moment before standing up and joining us as we all made our way to the second floor.

Once we were in front of the group sitting around a table trying to comfort the seith mage, Laxus looked at us. "I heard Wendy. So you know what Bix saw. We can continue the conversation on how we are going to deal with you."

My eyes went wide at his implication. "Deal with me? What the hell does that mean?" My voice sounded a little haughty, but who wouldn't be?

Laxus raised a brow and his gaze flickered to my hands resting on my hips in anger. Amusement danced in his eyes. "We need a plan in case this thing completes its mission."

"Excuse me! You heard Wendy and Bickslow. As long as I don't accept or acknowledge it, it won't complete its mission and all is well."

Laxus's stormy eyes stared me down. They seemed to see right through me. It made me a little uncomfortable. I started to fidget nervously under his intense stare. "Listen Blondie,"

"You're blond too," I muttered under my breath.

He ignored my comment effortlessly. "You keep getting migraines as a result of this being. So it can cause problems. We know that. Who's to say it can't cause worse conditions in order to break you down into giving in to it. So maybe one day it decides to stimulate your nerve receptors in such a way that you believe you've lost a limb or two. What will you do when that pain gets to be too great? Grin and bear it? No. You're going to give it whatever it wants in order to assure your survival. And that's okay. It's understandable to give up when you can't bear it anymore. However, in that unlikely event, we need to be prepared to deal with the consequences."

He leveled a challenging glare at me with a raised brow. "So you need to buck up, little girl, and help us come up with a backup plan. If you don't, I will treat you as an enemy of the guild. And I know that you understand why I would."

My lips pursed slightly as I stared at him with my own challenging glare. I didn't want to back down from Laxus of all people. I had to prove I'm strong. After a good two or three minutes of our stare-down, I sighed and looked away.

"Fine," I conceded. "I get it. I'll help you help me."

"That's the smartest thing I've ever heard you say," Evergreen sneered from across the table.

My head snapped toward her as I put my fists at my hips. I looked at Evergreen's glare with one my own. "That's the only thing you've ever heard me say," I snapped. "Why don't you just shut your mouth instead of treating me like shit, Evergreen? I'm still pretty peeved that you turned me to stone during Fantasia."

Her eyes widened slightly, but her expression otherwise showed no other hint of shock. She simply turned away, flipping her fan open and hiding a majority of her face.

I nodded my head once in affirmation that she was firmly back in her place and turned to Bickslow with a soft smile. "Do you care?"

Bickslow snapped his head up from staring at the table to looking at me with his head cocked to the side. "Excuse me?"

"I asked if you cared," I repeated. "You seem to care. You've been pretty shaken up since you saw whatever it is that's made its home in my head. So I ask again, do you care about what happens to me?" I crossed my arms across my chest.

He just kept staring at me. "I care more about what happens to the guild."

I stared back and shook my head. "I'm not satisfied. Take off your mask and tell me. I want to see the sincerity in your face."

Bickslow stared at me in what I presume to be shock and awe before reluctantly removing his mask and setting it on the table. He looked back up at me with his green eyes shining bright from unshed tears that he seemed to be choking back with every breath. He opened his mouth to tell me that he only cared about the guild but then shut it. With a long sigh and a shake of his head, he looked into my eyes. "Of course I care about what happens to you, Lucy," he whispered. I restrained myself from looking shocked at the use of my actual name and watched him take a shaky deep breath. "You are family. You are part of our guild. I will always be part of the team that rallies to help out a guild member."

I gave him a bright smile. "That's a much more satisfactory answer. Thank you."

Bickslow didn't say another word. All he did was replace his mask and look back at me with his trademark smirk. "You're welcome, Cosplayer." He stuck out his tongue as he normally does, causing me to smile slightly at his antics.

I just smiled again and looked over to Laxus. "So what's the plan?"

He smirked and leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head. "Well Blondie, I was thinking about simple observation of the entity for a little while. Of course, we will inquire about your well-being as we monitor the status of the entity. After we get a good grasp on the true nature of this thing, we will make a real plan."

A long silence followed Laxus's idea before Gajeel blurted out, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. You've got dragon senses too, dumbass," Laxus sneered.

"I swear, if we weren't guildmates, I'd punch your lights out Lightning Breath," Gajeel growled.

Levy put her hand on his arm and just shook her head, turning to look at my reaction. As if that were a cue, everyone turned to look at me as well. I, on the other hand, was staring at Laxus with a blank stare.

"Your plan is to make a plan after you guage the situation?" I rephrased incredulously. "That's it?"

"That's right," Laxus said with a smile. "That's my plan. Got a better one?"

I opened my mouth to object when the doors burst open and the entire guild turned to look at our guests. I tried to figure out who was at our door but the light shining in from outside was too bright and was blinding me from seeing anything but dark figures. After a couple of moments, the dark figures cleared and I could see who entered our guild.

My expression went from curious to confused within moments of recognition. For some unknown reason, the twin dragon slayers were standing in our doorway. I cocked my head at them as I watched them stroll into the guild, sniffing the air fervently. At the same time, they both snapped their heads toward me and stalked my way. I stepped back a little bit, bumping into Levy as I watched them get closer.

When they got to the top of the stairs, Laxus stood up and they immediately halted their movements to watch him warily. "What is your business here?" Laxus growled under the sound of the guild getting rowdy again.

Sting spoke first. "We are following a trail," he defended, puffing out his chest. "We got a message from Crime Sorcerie out of nowhere the other day, telling us they found a clue to Zeref's whereabouts. So we sniffed out his scent and followed it here."

The entire time Sting spoke, Rogue was staring at me intensely. When our group went quiet, processing Sting's words, Rogue spoke up, "My Shadows tell me Lucy is key to our hunt."

I took another couple steps back. "What are you talking about?" I said haughtily. "I don't have anything to do with that monster."

"That's what you say." Rogue cocked his head to the side, keeping his eyes trained on me. "However, my Shadows found a Shadow in you. It seems small but it is lying dormant for now. The wind dragon must have helped with that."

Freed spoke up before I could attempt to defend myself again. "What is a Shadow?"

Rogue's crimson eyes never left mine as he answered Freed. "A Shadow is a literal part of your shadow. If you have a shadow magic or any variation of it, you can break off a piece of your shadow and send it on a mission or it can act as a messenger. It will do anything you tell it, no matter what your request is. And it is my theory that Zeref sent a Shadow to Lucy to fulfil some mission."

"Now we just have to figure out the reason for attacking Lucy and what the mission is," Freed finished the unfinished thought Rogue left off on.

Rogue nodded and then finally turned to Laxus. "Do you have a plan to deal with this?"

Laxus smirked and opened his mouth to speak before I cut him off. "Excuse you!" It took only a couple steps to get in his face, and once there I settled my face into a haughty glare. "You don't get to talk about me like I'm not even here. You better ask me these stupid questions of yours before you go running your mouth off like you know what's going on." I stared into his red eyes with anger turning my stomach into knots.

Rogue simply stared back, as if he was dumbstruck. He was surprised, I could tell. I could see it in his eyes. Actually, I could see everything in his eyes. At this distance, I could see that he had tiny black flecks dancing in the crimson pools. It looked like a bird's eye view of people swimming in a pool of blood. The thought was both chilling and beautiful. I couldn't tear my eyes away from him. We just stood there staring into each other's eyes, regardless of the people around us. I knew we were being stared at, but I couldn't care less at that moment. His eyes were so captivating, drawing me closer until our lips were just centimeters apart.

*ROGUE POV*

Sting and I had bust into Fairy Tail with only one thing in mind: find Zeref's trail. So imagine my surprise when that trail led us to the light of the guild, Lucy Heartphilia. I couldn't believe it – not that I showed my shock at all. I was probably in the wrong to talk around her like she was an experiment I was working on. But I didn't know what to do. The cheeriest, brightest person in the guild was somehow connected to the world's arch-enemy. How much did she know? Why did Zeref leave his trail with Lucy? Is she connected to him somehow?

But the second she got in my face to reprimand me for it, I was embraced by her usual light. I could feel it wrap around my Shadows, warming them to the core. It seemed to emulate from her being into mine. It caressed my darkness and coaxed it into peace; something I haven't felt since I was a child and following Gajeel around like a puppy. She brought my very core a warmth that I thought had died a long time ago.

And her eyes. Oh my God, her eyes! They were like the color of melted chocolate. With her so close, I could see them so clearly. Clearer than I ever had the opportunity to. In fact, I was seeing a different side of her. Her lips were parted to allow her ragged breathing to leave her body and then return. Her cheeks were dusted a light shade of pink in her anger. And her eyes glowed with a fire that burned my soul. I was so captivated by her that I didn't want to look away. I even ignored Sting's demands as to what I was doing. I just couldn't pull myself away, nor did I want to.

Then she started getting closer. Her lips were so close to mine her breath fanned over my face. If I swayed, even just a little bit, there would be no more distance between us. I just had to move forward a little bit. Just a nudge. Before I could act on my thoughts, Sting grabbed me by my collar and pulled me back. I simultaneously cursed and thanked him in my head.

After clearing my throat, I turned to Laxus's smirking expression and glared. I turned to Lucy with a sigh once she had stepped back, a hand over her mouth. _Oh how cute. She's embarrassed. Her cheeks are burning a brighter pink. I just want to hold her._ I mentally shook those thoughts away before finally speaking to her in my usual monotonous voice.

"Then Lucy, what is your plan for dealing with the thing inside your head?"

Lucy took a steadying breath before straightening her shoulders and looking me in the eyes again. "Laxus has decided to wait until we determine what this thing is and what it wants," she said with a shaky breath.

Laxus chuckled. "Oy Blondie!" He shook his head at her. "Change of plans. Now that we know it's connected to Zeref, we have to find a way to destroy it. No more questions. No more waiting. This is it." He turned to Levy sitting in Gajeel's lap with a knowing smile on her lips in the direction of Lucy looking everywhere but at me. "You, do all the research you can on Shadows and its connection to Zeref. Have Rogue help you since he's the expert here. Freed, go with them since you're good with translations and research as well." The three us nodded and waited until Laxus finished giving orders to us all.

Then he looked to Gajeel, Bickslow, and Sting. "I'm counting on you three to take care of Lucy. Gajeel, if anything shows up in connection with Zeref's Shadow, kill it." Gajeel chuckled softly to himself with a self-satisfied grin. "Sting, I need you to simply stand by her. I want you to experiment with healing the darkness that I'm sure drives this Shadow with your Light magic. Maybe the counteracting magics will help." Sting nodded solemnly – an unusual sight, indeed, to see him so compliant with others' orders. "And Bicks, I need you to keep an eye on that thing. Make sure it doesn't get any worse than it is now."

He turned to the little blue-haired girl standing off to the side, so quiet I didn't even notice her. "Wendy, if Sting can't fix the problem I need you to do it. Plus Lucy is going to need moral support in all this." Wendy nodded with a determined look on her face.

Finally Laxus sighed and turned to Evergreen sitting beside him. "Ever, you and I are going to do our own research on this. So pack your bags because we're leaving tomorrow morning."

He turned to the rest of us, looking at all of us. He was making sure we all understood our missions. He rested his eyes on Lucy and his gaze softened. "I'm so sorry, Lucy. This is going to be a long and tiring time for you. We will try to finish this as soon as possible."

She nodded, with tears glistening in her eyes. "Thanks Laxus." She looked to the rest of us. "Thank you all of you." She smiled a watery smile.

"Don't worry Lucy," Sting said softly, laying a hand on her shoulder. Unconsciously, I took a step forward with a low growl rumbling in my chest. Confused by my reaction, I took a step back and bit my lip to keep myself quiet. "We will definitely kill the little bastard in your head."

Apparently, without him knowing, his compassion started manifesting in a low light under his palm. It seemed to seep into Lucy's shoulder were he touched. But it was at that moment that all hell broke loose. A piercing shriek filled the air as Lucy crumbled to her knees, clutching her head. The entire guild went quiet as Lucy's screams took over. Her cheeks were covered in tears and she kept clawing at her scalp.

Immediately, I ran to her side and gathered her up into my arms. Understanding that it was Sting's light that caused this, I immediately sent one my Shadows into her to meet Zeref's Shadow. Finally her screams stopped, her breathing ragged. It seemed that it was only rebelling against a polar magic but saw my magic as a sort of friend and stopped attacking its host. I exhaled a deep sigh of relief.

I looked down into Lucy's pained expression and offered an apologetic smile. She opened her mouth to thank me when her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell limp in my arms. I heaved another sigh and stood up with her in my hold. I looked to Laxus. "Show me to the infirmary. She needs rest."

He simply nodded and led the way. I looked down to the unconscious girl I was carrying as we made our way over. Looks like I need to reassess my view of this guild if a girl like this is here. A soft smile pulled at the corners of my lips as she nuzzled closer to me in her sleep. I really hope we help her. She deserves to smile without any more restrictions.

 **So tell me what you think. Please review. I would appreciate it deeply. Part of why I got WRITER'S BLOCK is because I thought no one cared about this story since I didn't get too many reviews. So I was trying to think of ways to keep ya'll hooked. Please review. I'm begging for feedback right now.**


	3. Change in Plans

**Sorry for the long update breaks. But school kinda takes priority and I had to work on my other Fanfiction. But I found time for this one too. Also, a quick correction to my last chapter. Bickslow's eyes are red, but I didn't know and described them as green. Just thought I'd make that correction here instead of changing it in the chapter. It sounded like too much work and I'm lazy. Haha. Thanks for sticking with me, guys.**

*LUCY POV*

I woke up in the infirmary some time later. I looked out the window near the firm bed I was laying in and saw only the stars shining against the near-black sky. A dim lamp illuminated the room, casting shadows on the walls. Something about them was kind of comforting and sighed as I shifted to sit up in the bed. As I swung my legs over the side of the bed to get up, a pressure appeared on my shoulder. It pushed against me in a sort of warning not to get up. I looked up to glare at the person and saw Rogue standing there quietly with his hand still pressing into my shoulder.

With a glower and a pout I leaned back into the bed and sat up against the pillows. I looked up at him with obvious curiosity. "Why?" was all I could manage to say. My throat felt kind of raw…probably from my screaming earlier.

Rogue smiled softly and sat down on the chair next to the bed that I hadn't noticed. "My new job is to stay here and keep the Shadow at bay," he explained. "Apparently it sees my Shadow as a kindred spirit and accepts its presence enough not to attack you. So I am to not leave your side and keep an eye on it should it try to make problems for you."

I nodded and looked toward my hands folded in my lap. I watched my fingers twist the sheet around restlessly. _So I'm a danger to the guild now. I'm connected to Zeref somehow. Why? Why me? Of all people, why does it have to be me?_ Rogue seemed to know what I was thinking about because his hands covered my own to stop their fidgeting. I looked over at him.

The lamp cast more shadows over Rogue's face, his eyes glowing in the darkness around him. He seemed calm like this. It was as if the shadows were a warm embrace and he was simply content in bathing in that comfort. His eyes bore into my soul and I was suddenly reminded of our near-kiss earlier in the day. A blush dusted my cheeks and I turned away in an effort to hide it. It wasn't very effective though because I saw a slight smirk on his lips, which only served to deepen my blush.

"You're going to be okay. We are going to protect you from whatever nefarious plan Zeref has for you. I promise." His eyes conveyed his sincerity as they stared into mine, his smirk gone from his face.

I smiled at him. "Thanks, Rogue," I rasped. The words seemed to scratch at my throat and I winced from the pain.

"Don't speak," he whispered. "You were screaming pretty loud there. Nearly broke our ear drums. Even the non-dragon slayers were concerned about their future ability to hear."

I chuckled lightly so as not to disturb my throat too much. A knock at the door seemed to break through the nice atmosphere we had and I looked up, suddenly tense again. Wendy opened the door and stepped in, followed by everyone else who was there to witness my meltdown. For some reason, the absence of Team Natsu seemed to disappoint me more than I expected. I put my head down and tried to calm myself so I didn't lose my mind over such a small matter. I mean, they don't know what I've been going through.

My eyes locked onto Laxus's with a frown pulling at my lips. "Team…Natsu?" I croaked out. I know that there were more important things to talk about right now, but I just had to know what my team was doing.

Laxus kept his gaze level with mine as he spoke. "They went on their mission today while you were passed out." His eyes took in my disappointment and he hurried to make an amendment. "But they asked to keep them updated on your condition."

I looked up at his frantic addition with a small smile. "Lies."

He looked down. "Yeah…I tried." He seemed really upset, as if he were fighting himself on something.

I smiled a little wider at his admission and nudged Rogue, flicking my eyes to Laxus. He apparently got my message because he smiled and nodded.

He turned to Laxus. "She thinks it's sweet you tried to make her feel a little better, despite her team's idiocy," he said with a slight chuckle.

Laxus's eyes widened at how well Rogue understood my silent message. It really was quite outstanding how perceptive he is about things. I smiled to myself without realizing and looked up to Laxus. He smiled at me and nodded slightly. My grin only widened. At least there's people on my side, even if they aren't who I expected.

"Well," Sting said from a corner of the room. "I think all this is nice and good but are we not going to talk about what happened back there? I mean, Lucy just got attacked by a goddamned shadow in her head because I touched her!" I watched his eyes finally land on me and then soften. "Are you okay?"

I nodded and smiled in thanks before turning to Rogue with my question posed in my eyes. "Yes, I explained your situation to them. I don't know why he still doesn't understand. I think Natsu beat him up a little too much at the GMG." I laughed softly to myself, trying not to make too much noise to disturb my throat.

An indignant shout sounded from the light dragon slayer brought a loud, hearty laugh from me before I could stop myself. I doubled over in my sitting position, holding onto my stomach, tears falling from my eyes. My laughter scratched against my throat, causing more tears to escape my eyes from the pain. But I just kept laughing. I suppose I was worrying the people around me because a small delicate hand placed itself on my leg from where Levy sat at my feet. I looked up at her, wiping the tears from my cheeks and the laughter finally fading off to a sigh.

I looked into her eyes with a smile. "Sorry." I gave her a shrug.

She laughed airily and patted my knee. "It's fine, Luce," she said. "I was just making sure you didn't hurt yourself too bad."

I nodded and looked up to the rest of the group. I nodded, knowing that they came in with a reason. Gajeel cleared his throat and stepped forward, his hand on Levy's shoulder.

"Well, Bunny," he began. "We were thinking that maybe you should take it easy and not do too much. Obviously, Rogue will be taking Sting's place in all the plans we made before you passed out. But you need to take it easy and never leave his side. Or mine and Bickslow's. We are only going to be able to protect you if you are in our line of sight."

Suddenly Bickslow cleared his throat from next to me, his eyes glowing green in the dim lighting. Why has no one turned back on the lights? Though I guess I'm not complaining too much, since it's a nice ambiance." His eyes faded slowly back to red as he gazed at me with mild concern pulling his lips into a frown.

"The Shadow has grown slightly but is now being controlled by another one," he reported to us all, staring at me. "But the good news is its hostility has calmed down. It didn't push me out that time. So it probably won't be attacking you any time soon. But the bad news is it is growing steadily and fighting against Rogue's Shadow. Has anything changed at all with it?"

I stayed silent as I thought and analyzed the feeling in my head. Nothing felt different besides the lack of a headache. But everything was fine. I looked up at Bickslow and shook my head. He nodded and looked up at Laxus. "Ya'll can go on ahead to do your jobs. Me, Rogue, and Gajeel have this. Don't worry." He smiled at everyone and then at me, his tongue lolling out. The Fairytail guild mark on the muscle still as odd an accessory as ever.

I smiled at him and turned to Laxus with a nod. Laxus stared me down intensely before shaking his head with a low growl and turning to Wendy. "For god's sake," he grumbled to the little bluenette. "Will you help her already? Poor Blondie has never been this quiet since she was turned into stone during Fantasia!"

At his words, I smiled with a light giggle bubbling up in my chest. Wendy jumped and ran over to me, wrapping her hands around my throat without hesitation. I could feel her magic caressing the walls of my throat along with her soft hands just hovering over the skin. As soon as her hands left me, I breathed a deep sigh at the soothing feeling in my throat. Oddly enough, I could kind of taste mint in the back of my mouth. It's kind of cool how her magic actually tasted as soothing as it felt.

I looked up to the waiting eyes of the people around me. "Wendy," I called to her retreating form as she tried to hide behind Rogue. "Your magic tastes like mint."

The whole room went dead silent as Wendy simply stared at me wide-eyed. "Excuse me?" She blinked to clear the confusion from her eyes.

I smiled. "I guess since you were working on my throat, I could actually taste it. But I'm not kidding, it tastes like spearmint. That's pretty cool."

A blush dusted her cheeks before actually hiding behind Rogue. Gajeel laughed, his eyes softening when they landed on her back. Levy and I both noticed and shared a glance and a smile before turning to the rest of the group.

"So what are you waiting for?" Rogue asked from beside me. "We got this. You guys should start your own work now. She's in good hands so don't worry about her."

Laxus nodded at him before turning around and gesturing to everyone else to head out with him, sans Wendy, Gajeel, Bickslow, and Rogue. When the door shut behind Sting, who chanced a worried glance over at me and Rogue, I turned to my new best friends for the next few days or weeks. All of them looked concerned and nervous over me. I sighed and shook my head. I looked back at every single one of them with a smile.

"Don't ya'll worry. I'll be good as new soon and we can get rid of this thing in my head." I reached out to Wendy and grasped her hand. "Stay with me and keep yourself out of trouble, okay?" I winked at her and ruffled her hair, making her laugh before nodding at me. "Good."

After I had yawned we decided to all get some rest from the day since it was late. So all the guys went to their respective homes to get some sleep while Wendy curled up with me in the cot. I stroked her hair as her breathing evened out. I kept stroking the soft blue strands until sleep finally took me as well.

The next morning, everyone returned with refreshed faces, ready to begin the day. I sat up in bed and talked to everyone for a while before Wendy helped me to the shower so I could feel clean again. When I stepped out, I slipped on some clothes that Virgo must have brought me while I was showering. I smiled at my spirit's kindness and admired the denim shorts and pale blue V-neck top. I pulled some socks over my feet and then the black booties she had placed next to the clothes. Then I walked out with a promise in mind to contact some of my spirits soon.

I sat down on the bed and extended my legs out on the bed to relax while the guys fidgeted in their chairs. Nobody said a word. Wendy went over to clean up the mess on the counter she apparently made while tending to me during my unconsciousness yesterday. I watched her move around the infirmary like she was making tea for us at home. The guys turned to me and smiled wide.

"So what do you want to do now?" Gajeel's gruff voice broke through the awkward silence.

I put a finger to my lip in thought, gnawing on the bottom one slightly at the same time. I smiled before swinging my legs over the side of the bed. This time no one reached out to stop me. They probably assumed that since Wendy wasn't fussing over me anymore that I had been given a clean bill of health.

With a stretch of every muscle in my back and shoulders, I finally stood up from the bed from what felt like a whole day's worth of laying down. I headed out of the room and down the stairs to the bar where Mira stood cleaning a glass. She set it down under the counter and smiled her winning grin at me.

"Lucy," she chirped. "How are you feeling? You gave us all quite a scare back there." She looked perfectly cheery to anyone who just glanced at her, but I could see the crease between her brows and the slight twitching under her left eye. She was definitely hiding her concern for me. And very well, I might add.

I smiled for her benefit and threw myself into the barstool for good measure. "I'm great," I exclaimed, my grin widening. "I feel better than I have in weeks. My headache is gone and I can stand tall again."

She sighed in relief before pulling out a strawberry milkshake from under the counter. Sometimes, that little trick of her makes me think there is just a black hole of everything down there. "Well that's good to hear. Hopefully this makes you feel even better. It's on the house." She gave me a wink before turning to disappear into the kitchen.

I grinned excitedly and wrapped my hands around the glass to feel the cold seep into my fingers and send a chill ricocheting down my spine. I hummed in approval as I took a sip of the creamy dessert through the straw. It's the little things in life that just make it worth living. With a contented sigh, I pushed the empty glass away from me and looked back at my amused friends around me.

I pushed out my lower lip and pouted. "Don't judge me," I mumbled. "Mira's milkshakes are the best. I can't help myself."

Rogue smiled at me and nodded, his face kind of betraying his slight criticism of my little obsession. I shrugged it off and looked down at Wendy. "Hey, now that the headaches are gone, we should go out." I gripped her small shoulders and grinned wide. Her own grin mirrored my own in seconds. She nodded vehemently and grabbed my hand, pulling me out the door laughing all the way.

I chanced a quick look behind us and noticed the guys were following with pale complexions and frowns on their lips. I laughed at their outward display of displeasure and ran with Wendy to the center of Magnolia where all the shops were at. We took a look around us at all the different shops around us. Then we looked to the guys who were eyeing one specific store with a mixture of interest and severe anxiety. We followed their eyes to the shop and giggled.

"Lucy," Wendy said. "I want to help you find something cute!" She grinned a devious smile and dragged me into the cute little lingerie shop the boys were worried about.

As soon as we were inside and picking up different kinds of bras from the racks, the boys threw themselves onto the couches in the center and tried very hard to not grumble angrily about our choice. And that is how we began our day of adventure.

A couple hours later, Wendy and I skipped over to my apartment with the setting sun casting yellows and reds over the buildings. The guys followed a little slower than normal, their arms weighed down by our many bags from our shopping day. Once inside, they dropped everything onto the floor and fell onto my couches and chairs. I think one of them was on the floor. But Wendy and I just laughed and went into the kitchen to make dinner.

*LAXUS POV*

As soon as Blondie was passed out, everybody near us went into panic mode. Everyone had to know what was wrong with her and why she started screaming. They kept asking if she was going to be okay. Some asked why the twin dragon slayers were here, but not a lot of them seemed to care all too much.

Then there was Team Natsu. They looked over to us with tired disappointment in their eyes. As if they were ashamed of her. They seemed tired of something. Could it have been Blondie? Were they tired of her screaming or what? While Rogue brought her to the infirmary, I stalked over to where they were sitting to figure this out.

"So what's going on?" I wasted no time in formalities or small talk. I just wanted to get to the bottom of this. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared down at them.

Natsu glanced from the infirmary doors to me with a wary gaze. He just shrugged. "I don't know," he sighed. "After a while of all her whining and complaining, you just kind of get tired. And then she goes and does this. It has to all be for attention."

I simply stared at him for a moment, letting his words sink in. Once they had I slammed my hands down on the table in front of them so I could lean over the table. I captured each one of their cautious stares before finally settling on Erza. "And what about you? You seemed so close to her. And now you're saying she's just trying to get attention? The hell is wrong with you?"

Erza sighed and looked down at the table. "I don't know anymore. She's been complaining for a while now. It kind of gets old."

I grit my teeth against her answer and leveled my glare at Gray. "And you? You feel the same way?" 

Gray shrugged as well and looked into my eyes. "I don't think it's attention she's seeking. There's probably something wrong with her. But I'm trying to be neutral right now. I don't want to pick a side."

His answer was probably the most frustrating. I couldn't hold back my growl. "Listen here, Ice Freak. There is no side to pick. You all are leaving her behind for a mission to be a family. I get it. But I thought she was your family too. And now you're saying that that was all a lie? Not only that but you are saying there are sides to be chosen?"

I took a deep breath before continuing. "Maybe you're right. Maybe there is a side to be chosen. Between Lucy and your two little childhood friends here who have decided a member of their nakama is not worth their time. So here is where I ask you Fullbuster. Which side are you going to fucking choose? Erza and Natsu, who don't apparently give a shit about Blondie's problems because for some crazy reason she is no longer deserving to be part of your family," I put air quotes around the last word and then continued my ultimatum. "Or Lucy, who has given you everything her little heart can give while also dealing with a very serious problem on her own? You idiots need to get your shit straight or don't bother even looking at her again."

With that, I stormed off to wait in Gramps's office for Blondie to wake up. When I told him what Team Natsu had told me, he was a little upset, but understood that they are just going through something and they will be back to being their old selves. That they are probably just exhausted and are taking it out on her. I sighed in frustration and growled, throwing my head against the back of the couch I was lounging on.

"Why do you care so much, dear boy?" he had asked me.

I blinked before pondering his question. "I don't really know," I admitted. "I just feel a need to protect her. I need to help her get through this. And I have to keep away people from her life who won't help her get any better as a person."

Gramps laughed and put a hand on my shoulder. "Laxus, that's called kinship. You have found someone that you have decided is family. For you, and for your dragon, she is your sister. That's why you have this profound need to help her."

Surprised, I looked into his eyes, hoping to find a spark of humor in them. Finding none, I sighed and closed my eyes. It made sense. It explained the feelings I was having. I just didn't want to admit it.

Finally, Blondie woke up and we all went to the infirmary to talk to her about Rogue taking over Sting's role in all this. But when we heard their voices through the door, we decided to give them some time to talk it out. After all, he was her sort of savior. Eventually though we had to go in so we had Wendy go in first. No one wanted to face her wrath if she decided any of us were a bother.

I saw her laying there, barely able to speak from screaming as hard as she did, and got angry again. How could Team Natsu not care about her? How could they just leave her like this and not even worry? Then she asked me where they were. I had to make something up. She couldn't know that they didn't really want to know about what was going on with her.

Of course she saw through it though. She really is one smart cookie. It pained me to see the disappointment on her face though. I just sat there quietly while everyone around us talked to her and asked questions. I watched the way she looked at Rogue and he knew exactly what she was thinking and it dawned on me. They have a spark of something that I'm not quite sure about. The more I watched them though, I knew. I just knew it had to be the beginning stages of love. Maybe they were fated to be. Maybe his dragon chose her. Time could only tell. If only time would also tell us what the fuck Zeref wanted with the light of our guild.

I sighed once more that day as I stared up at the ceiling above me. I was lying in a bed in a hotel room in some remote town far away from Magnolia. Ever was asleep in the bed next to mine, trying to sleep off the long train ride. We had gotten on the train the second Blondie told us we could leave. Levy had found some piece of information on Zeref's Shadows doing their work over here and we went out to figure out what we could do about the one in Lucy's head.

I smiled. So Lucy is kin, huh? I snorted to myself. Of course I would become family with the light of the guild. Me, who had done so much wrong to this guild was actually "brother" to the one girl who had made this guild into what it is now. She was the reason we all had become even closer than before. She was the reason the Rajinshuu could be accepted into Fairytail without any worries. She truly is a beautiful person. And she is now under my care. I will protect her light with everything I have. I swear it.

With that thought in mind, I turned over in the bed and shut my eyes. I allowed a smile to cross my face as I evened out my breathing and focused on letting my mind wander off into unconsciousness.

 **Thanks for reading. I hope to get some reviews soon for this one. And if you want, I'd love some more reviews and reads on my other story, "A New Fairytail". That is, if you want. Please enjoy my stories and I hope they don't bore you too much.**


	4. Progress?

**Hey guys, sorry for the late update. But to make up for it, I made it slightly longer…. okay a lot longer. Please bear with me. I hope that you enjoy this chapter. Let me know what you think in the reviews.**

 **Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns Fairytail. Not me.**

The next couple of weeks waiting for Laxus to return were slow-moving. Every day was pretty much the same. I would wake up, Bickslow would check on the Shadows, Rogue would adjust the strength of his Shadow if necessary (which it never seemed to be), Wendy would do a check on my physical health, and then all of us would sit around and watch movies until we fell asleep. It has truly been boring. But today felt different for some reason.

When I woke up this morning, it was to whispering. But when I looked around, everyone was still asleep. Confused, I frowned to myself and got out of bed, thinking it was coming from outside. As soon as the door was open, I felt arms wrap around waist and a hand clamp down on my mouth. I was pulled outside and the door swung shut behind me. My captor swung me over his shoulder to keep a better grip, while still keeping his hand over my lips somehow.

He carried me effortlessly to a carriage that he threw me into and shut the door. I heard a clicking and assumed he had locked it, but tried at the handle anyway. When it didn't budge, I started screaming and banging against the window in a panic, praying someone would notice.

But as the carriage started moving, I realized that there was no hope of that happening. I slumped into my seat in defeat and watched the scenery outside the window. But the longer I stared out the window, the hazier my vision became until I felt hot liquid trail down my cheeks. I touched my face and stared at the tears covering my blankly. I turned my head back to the window and watched again while the tears continued to fall.

"Sorry it had to be like this," a voice whispered in my head. I gasped and shot forward in my seat. I put a hand against my head as I listened. "But you had someone else in here and I couldn't really talk to you and explain the situation."

"So you kidnapped me," I surmised. "What did distance have to do with anything? Rogue's Shadow is still in here!" I ignored the vague feeling of looking like an idiot as I spoke to nothing.

"No it isn't," the voice said with pride. I think I'm going to call him Asshole for now. "I actually added another Shadow while everyone was sleeping and absorbed it into that Shadow so that no one would notice. But I couldn't very well still talk to you with everyone around. You share too much."

Ah, so if he's claiming the Shadows, he must be Zeref. I felt a surge of anger flow through my veins. I'm still calling him Asshole though.

"Now that's just rude," it admonished. I crossed my arms and sat back against the seat again. "Now listen closely. It is imperative that you accept my presence in your mind as soon as possible. It is for the benefit of yourself and those around you if you do."

"Excuse you," I shot back. "Why would I ever accept Zeref? I am not evil! I won't let you near my family. So you can just forget about it, Mister." I nodded to myself, proud of my response.

A slow sigh filled my head. "You'll accept me soon enough. Just you wait."

A pain exploded beneath my skull, ripping a scream from my throat as soon as his voice faded from my mind. My eyes shot open when I felt shaking. I was looking up into four pairs of eyes with my mouth wide open and a scream still ringing in the air. Wendy put her hand under my chin and pushed it up until my mouth was closed. Once my mouth was closed again, the scream stopped. I blushed at the realization that I had been the one screaming like I was dying.

I sat up slowly, putting my hand against my head at the pain still lingering. "Sorry guys," I whispered when I was in a sitting position, my sheets pooling around my hips.

When I looked around, I noticed everyone was wearing some degree of a blush on their cheeks. But Rogue was probably the reddest with Wendy following right behind. Gajeel had turned his head but the tips of ears were pink. And then there was Bickslow with a light blush dusting his cheeks and a wide grin pulling at his lips. Before I could question what they were all gawking at, I felt a cool breeze rush against my torso. I looked down and squeaked in surprise and embarrassment, furiously pulling the sheets up around my neck as quickly as I could. I had forgotten that I only wore underwear to bed.

Once I was covered again, Wendy started ushering everyone out of my room so I could get dressed. With the door closed she turned to me with concern pooling in her eyes. I gave her a small smile and stood so I could start getting dressed. She sat down on my bed, trying to look at everything but me. I was pulling on my purple tank top when she finally spoke.

"Lucy," she breathed out. I turned around with my jeans halfway up my legs. "Are you okay?"

I sighed and pulled my pants up and fastened them. I sat on the bed next to her and pulled my blond hair into a ponytail. "Yeah Wendy," I said softly. "I'm trying to be."

I stared at the ground and said nothing else. She must have understood my unspoken words because she got up from the bed and made her way to the door. "Then come on," she said excitedly. "Let's go to the guild and get you a milkshake." I looked up at her and smiled as wide as I could manage.

I nodded and stepped outside with her. I smiled at the three men sitting in my living room. "Come on you guys," I said. "We are going to the guild today. And there's nothing you can do to stop me." I smiled proudly and walked over to the door where my sneakers were sitting.

Over the course of my house arrest, I've come to love the simpler and more comfortable outfits as opposed to my usual skirts and shorts. Wearing jeans just feels so much better. I was tying my shoes when Rogue placed a hand on my back. I looked up at him and smiled before tying the last knot.

"Lucy," he said softly. I stood straight and looked into his worried eyes curiously. When I looked behind him, everyone else was also looking at me worriedly. My brows furrowed before my face fell at the realization of what they wanted to know. My shoulders slumped forward and I sighed, waiting for the question. "What happened last night? What caused you to wake up screaming?"

I shrugged his hand off my shoulder, that I hadn't realized was there. "I had a nightmare," I said softly. I sat down on the couch between Bickslow and Gajeel with Rogue and Wendy sitting on the coffee table in front of me. "But I don't think it was really a nightmare," I mused.

Gajeel put an arm around me. "Tell us what happened Bunny-girl," he said quietly.

I opened my mouth to explain further when a familiar pain bloomed at the back of my head. I slumped forward out of Gajeel's hold and laid my head on my knees with my teeth clenched. I rested my hands over the pain as I sat there in near-fetal position.

 _You better not say a word_ , Asshole hissed through my head. I gasped at the intrusive voice and clenched my teeth tighter when the pain worsened. _Say one word out of line and I will make this worse. What did I say about you sharing too much?_

I sighed when the pain disappeared and I was able to sit back up. Everyone was staring at me in concern and confusion. I gave them an apologetic smile. "Sorry guys," I said as normally as I could. "Just a headache from the screaming from this morning. I was trying not to let it get to me but it just got worse. Can someone get me some pain medicine?"

Wendy nodded and ran off to rummage through my medicine cabinet. She came back with the tiny blue pills and a glass of water. I took them immediately and smiled in thanks. With a sigh I leaned back into Gajeel.

"Anyway, I just had a nightmare that I had been kidnapped by the Oracion Seis again. But you guys didn't save me and I almost died, had I not woken up." I shrugged and looked down at the floor, trying to appear upset by the events.

Gajeel squeezed me slightly. "You know we would always save you," he insisted.

Bickslow patted my head and smiled at me. "Always, Cosplayer," he laughed. His babies repeating my nickname behind him.

I smiled at them and looked to a nodding Wendy and pulled her in for a hug. But when I looked over her shoulder, Rogue was giving me a very skeptical look. I immediately looked away from his suspicion and stood.

"Well let's go. I'm ready to go to the guild again," I forced out despite my anxiety. "Race you there!"

And with that I ran out the door and down the street. I could hear them racing out the door and their feet hitting the concrete. I knew that Rogue was going to confront me about my obvious lie to the group about my nightmare but I was hoping I would be able to distract everyone for long enough to figure all this out.

I burst through the doors to the guild and didn't stop running until I hit the countertop to the bar, the wind getting knocked out of me. As I attempted to catch my breath, I heard everyone burst through the door as well and make their way to me. They obviously let me get here first though. They had to. Three of them are dragon-slayers and one can fly on his babies. So they could have easily beat me here.

Wendy jumped up onto the bar stool and ordered for everyone, seeming to know what we all wanted with ease. She pulled out her wallet that I didn't know she had and paid for everyone.

I stared at her with wide eyes as she handed over the jewels. "Wendy," I said. "Where did you get that much money?"

She smiled nonchalantly. "I've been keeping some money saved up after every mission for random personal expenses."

Our food appeared in front of us along with a famous Mira-smile and the conversation and curiosity died immediately. Who could continue any conversation at the sight of food?

An hour later, we were all sitting around the bar with varying degrees of contentment on our faces. But all of us were happy. We had been laughing and joking around the entire time while we ate without abandon. It was probably the best, most fulfilling meal I've had in a long time. But there was a slight problem. Every time I laughed, I felt a small prick at the back of my head. I growled internally at the fact that Asshole is trying to take away my happiness. I must have been showing my frustration because Rogue was giving me a weird look. He leaned forward, ready to ask me what was going on.

"Lucy?" a familiar voice called out from the guild doors. I looked up with a blank expression, not wanting to express anything toward them. "Lucy, can we talk?"

I turned toward Wendy and smiled wide. "Hey Wendy do you think that you and the guys can go to the library and ask Freed if he has any recommendations for me on readings about runes?"

She frowned. She opened her mouth to ask me why but I silenced her with an insistent look. She sighed and nodded before walking away with the rest of my "babysitters" as I have begun calling them in jest.

When they disappeared into the library, I looked back at the group of people I once called my friends with a blank expression once again before nodding to the now empty chairs. I said nothing though.

"Lucy," Gray sighed. "We would like to apologize for—"

"No." I said firmly, looking at him with fierce eyes. "Stop right there. There is no 'we apologize' that I will ever accept from any one of you." I gestured to Natsu and Erza who were looking down at the table silently with no sense of remorse on their face. "Do they look sorry? Do they look like they want to apologize? No Gray. So stop with this 'we' bullshit. Say it like it is. They obviously don't care about me anymore. They think I'm annoying. I heard about the conversation you had with Laxus. I know what Natsu and Erza said. I will not allow you to clean up their mess. Let them decide for themselves if they are sorry or not.

"Either you apologize for yourself because you are sorry and you want to continue being in my life, or you walk away now with your true friends and without me. I'm sorry Gray, but now's the time to choose. You can't love me and remain with them if they are going to hate me. It's too much for you and way too much for me. So make your decision. I'll be in the library when you've made your decision." With that, I stood and walked away, leaving all of them staring at me in shock.

I could feel Erza and Natsu glaring at me as I walked and I just knew that Gray was staring at the table absorbed in thought. I ignored the rest of the guild's stares and slammed the door to the library as hard as I could to make a point. As soon as there was a barrier between myself and everyone else, I breathed a deep sigh of relief and struggled control the tears threatening to climb down my face.

I put my hand against my lips to muffle the sob as my tears finally escaped. I slid down the door and brought my knees up to my chest as I cried to myself as quietly as I could. I stayed like that for another couple of minutes before sniffing and standing slowly. I wiped my face and browsed through the bookshelves aimlessly. I didn't really care if I ran into Freed or Wendy or anyone else. I just wanted to be surrounded by the books.

The smell of the books filled my nose as I passed. The silence in the air wasn't really oppressive like it would be if I were truly alone in my house. I watched dust motes float in the sunlight streaming through the window. I sighed and made my way deeper into the maze-like library. It felt like I was in my own little bubble. As I walked around, dragging my fingers across the spines of the books, the sun started to set until I was lost in the darkness of night. Only the moon lit the ends of the aisles for me to find my way out of the maze.

I looked around curiously. How had I managed to wander for this long? I didn't even realize it had gotten so late. I started to make my way toward where I imagined the door would be. But I soon realized I was too deep into the library and had no idea where I had ended up. Panic bloomed in my chest as I started running around trying to find an exit.

"Lucy," a voice called from the darkness behind me. It kind of sounded like Freed so I followed it. "Are you in here?"

"Yeah," I called back. "But I can't see anything. Could you turn back on the lights?"

"The switch isn't working."

I rolled my eyes. Perfect. "Keep talking then so I can follow you better."

"Lucy I'm right behind you." I jumped at the feeling of air at the back of my neck and the closeness of the voice. I turned and laughed breathily, trying to calm my racing heart.

But when I turned around, all I saw was a dark shadowy form. I looked up into what I assumed was his face and smiled. "Thanks for finding me Freed," I sighed. "But could you have done it without scaring me?"

A chuckle rumbled through the air before a hand settled on my shoulder. "Lucy, I'm not Freed."

I was only allowed a second of fear before a hand wrapped around my throat and lifted me off the ground effortlessly. My hands immediately started scratching at his in an attempt to pry him off. My breathing was labored and my feet kicked out to try to hit him. He only laughed at my vain attempts though before loosening enough to let me breathe without letting my feet touch the ground.

"Now I'm only going to say this once so listen close," he hissed. A flash of recognition crossed my mind and I inwardly sighed despite my predicament. Of course it was Asshole again. Which means this must be another dream. "You have two weeks to accept me. If I don't hear an affirmative response, I will start killing your friends one by one until you change your mind."

He finally got close enough to the moonlight for me to see his face. I could see his black eyes almost glowing against the darkness behind him and then his wicked grin. But as I stared into his eyes I realized that they were just sad and full of hope. I stared at him quizzically, no longer concerned with escaping. My brows furrowed when I noticed that he was actually kind of scared too. But of what? He was the most evil dark mage out there.

"Ass—I mean Zeref," I whispered. He growled at my slip and I just kinda shrugged nonchalantly. If he wants to act like an asshole than I'm going to call him one. I pushed through the slight hilarity of the situation though. "What are you afraid of? Why are you so insistent on this?"

My question obviously caught him off guard by the way he blinked and accidently dropped me. I rubbed my sore hip where I hit the tile and glared up at him. I mean really, if this was a dream I might as well act normal.

He looked down at me in amusement with one brow raised before joining me on the floor and leaned back against the wall in front of me, out of the way of the moonlight. I brought my knees to my chest and watched him as well as I could in the dark. It wasn't that hard, though. I had gotten used to seeing in the dark after spending so much time with Rogue.

I cocked my head to the side as I stared at his silhouette, waiting for him to speak. Finally, he sighed before looking up from staring at his pants to look into my eyes. "Lucy, you need to understand something about me and my magic."

He opened his mouth to continue but then snapped it shut and growled menacingly. I was about to ask what was going on when I heard my name being called. I looked back at him and watched as he faded from view with a scowl on his face. I felt myself being dragged backwards into blackness before I was suddenly propelled forward. It felt like I was falling before I hit something hard and my eyes shot open.

I was in the library still but sunlight was streaming through the window and I was still leaning against the door with my head against my knees. I looked around to see Rogue staring at me with worried red eyes. I wiped at the tears dried on my cheeks and stood.

"Why are you asleep in a place like this?" he asked.

I shrugged. "It just kind of happened," I responded carefully before stepping forward. I bumped into his chest though, not figuring he wouldn't move and looked up into now firm eyes.

"You and I need to have a chat," he stated. I could feel the deep rumbling of his voice glide across my skin and nearly melted. I really shouldn't be this close to him if this is how I'm going to react.

I sighed, keeping my face calm. "Yeah, I guess we do." I walked over to a couple of chairs in the corner of the library and sat down. He joined me immediately and waited for me to speak first.

*FREED POV*

As soon as Lucy had fallen unconscious, I grabbed Levy and wasted no time in dragging her to the library. She didn't protest or raise any problems at literally being dragged around by me, but Gajeel sure did. If his low growl was any indication, then I am so in for it later. I shuddered at the thought and opened the library doors. I was happy that it was larger than our last one and had more variety. The town definitely stepped it up a notch for us.

Looking around, my grip on Levy's wrist still tight, I tried to figure out where we should start. At some point, Levy had regained her posture and balance and dusted herself off. She looked around with me before running off, now dragging me behind her. I watched her run, my feet stumbling under me in an attempt to catch up and remain standing. I could see why Gajeel had fallen in love with her. If it were another life, maybe it would have been us.

I shook my head. No, it would always be Mira. I smiled fondly at the memory of how we got together and zoned out for a moment or two.

"Freed," Levy's voice broke through my thoughts before her face appeared in my field of vision. I blinked and realized we were holding onto each other's wrists.

With a light blush, I let go and stood straight. "Sorry," I mumbled.

She smiled softly and nodded in understanding. "It's fine. I think I know a great place to start in our research." She was glowing with pride as I watched her. This little girl was so excited to finally be able to help her best friend.

"Okay, enlighten me," I said with a small smile of my own.

She beamed and ran off down the shelves, picking up book after book on her way. I simply watched her from where I had taken up a table. I turned away for two seconds to look at a bird building a nest in a nearby tree. I heard a loud thud a couple seconds later and turned around to see a bright-eyed Levy leaning against the table surrounded by several mountains of books.

She immediately sat down, put on her Gale Force reading glasses and opened the closest book to her. I took that as my cue to start and plucked my own book from her stack, placing it open in front of me.

With a deep sigh, I removed my jacket and carefully draped it over the back of my chair before laying my rapier on the chair next ot me. I rolled the sleeves of my white shirt up my arms to above my elbows. Finalizing my reading preparation, I pulled the band out of the bottom of my hair and used it to tie all of it up into a high ponytail. Without any further prompting, I set to reading in an attempt to save the light of our guild.

Levy and I were surprised at how quickly we found a lead. About 7 hours and 12 books later, Levy shot out of her seat with a loud noise I'm not exactly sure was human. It was somewhere between a grunt and a scream really. I stared at her wide-eyed as she slammed the book down on top of the one I was reading and pointed excitedly to a specific paragraph, bouncing up and down.

I regarded her thoughtfully before turning to what she was pointing to. Somewhere in the Western forests of Crocus, there are legends of shadows dancing independently from the ones cast by the trees. Shadows that move on their own and when seen, can attack or possess you. Or worse, if you touch them, they have the potential to kill you. I looked at Levy with the same light in my eyes she had and stood abruptly.

She followed on my heels as I ran through the library, my hair swinging wildly behind me from its binding. I stopped in front of Laxus, where he sat in Gramps's office with his arm draped over his face.

Assuming he was sleeping, I kicked his leg to rouse him. He shot up straight and looked around cautiously before landing on Levy and me. He looked about to yell at me when he saw Levy's excitement and the book in my hands.

I said no words, just shoved the book in his face. I watched his stormy eyes scan the page frantically. He finally looked up at me with wide eyes and a wide grin.

"Freed, Levy," he locked his eyes with each of ours before continuing. "You are geniuses!" He stood and shoved the book harshly back into my chest, knocking the air from my lungs. "Ever and I will leave as soon as Blondie wakes up," he called to us.

Only moments after he said that, Lucy woke up. We all gathered and explained the situation. After she told us all to leave, Laxus and Ever jumped on the first train to Crocus and Levy and I dragged Sting to the library with us. He grumbled the entire time until we set a book down in front of him with a notebook and a pen. He immediately set to work without any further complaint.

Two weeks went by with the three of us practically living in the library, poring over every book we could think of to help us. Sting and Levy went off with Lucy's "babysitters", she calls them, in search of other books we could use while I stayed staring at the same page in the book I've had in front of me for three hours now. I buried my face into the pages and took a deep breath, trying to calm myself.

I heard a door slam from the floor below and looked over the railing to where Lucy sat against it, crying. I was going to go help her when I watched her fall asleep. I tilted my head to the side and watched her for a second as she continued to cry in her sleep.

At the first whimpers, I ran down the stairs and kneeled next to her. "Lucy," I whispered. When I touched her, though, her skin seemed to shock me. I flinched and decided that the Shadow was starting to attack her and now others.

I ran through the library in a panic in search of Rogue. By the time I found him in the very back of the room, I was panting and doubled over with my hands on my knees. I probably shouldn't have sprinted up the stairs like that. I'm not really an athlete.

"Freed, what's—" Rogue cut himself short as his nose sniffed the air. His red eyes went wide and he ran past me down the stairs, presumably to where Lucy was. I watched him run off, and then turned back to Bickslow and Wendy's confused faces. Behind them, Gajeel was holding Levy as she looked at me with concerned, watery eyes. I shook my head when they tried to follow Rogue.

"Don't," I finally managed to say. I stood up straight as I finally caught my breath. "The Shadow is attacking those who touch her in her sleep. I don't know what else it can do when threatened so we should let Rogue handle this one. It is similar to his magic after all." Levy nodded and guided everyone away from where I ran from and we all grabbed another book to look over.

No one said a word as Rogue took care of Lucy. No one moved except to get another book We all just silently read, hoping to Mavis that we find something that can be of more help. I sighed and brushed my bangs out of my eye. _Please Laxus, get here soon_.

 **What did you think? Like it, love it, hate it? I'd love to hear from you. It gives me further motivation to write when I have reviews. It makes me think someone is still reading and wants to know what happens next. Sorry for changing the rating, but I just wanted to be safe.**


	5. The More You Know

**Hey, I know it's been a while and I am so sorry! Just as I was sitting down to begin updating this story in May, I realized that my Microsoft Office subscription had expired. And then I went on vacation to Texas with my family where I had literally no time to sit down to write. So I've been waiting for my school to open so I could call the IT people about what happened. I got it fixed though…obviously. I made it suuuper long so as to make up for the delay. Thank you for the reviews! They were much appreciated! And I hope this update will be worth the wait.**

 **Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns FairyTail! I'm just editing it.**

*LUCY POV*

Staring at him now, I realized he really was a force to be reckoned with when he got serious. His face was a mask of indifference and his arms were crossed across the broad expanse of his chest. His crimson eyes bore into mine, burning with suspicion and hostility. Though if I considered the contrast between his stiff body language and the soft lines around where his mouth was drawn into a thin line, I would see it really wasn't hostility but extreme concern. I cocked my head to the side, pondering the strange combination of emotions.

He sighed, closing his eyes, blocking my view of the window into his soul I had discovered. "Lucy," he breathed gently, though slightly exasperatedly. "I know what you're thinking. And I'm concerned about you because you are dealing with a very dangerous mage all by yourself when that shouldn't be the case. You have several very capable mages all waiting at your side to help you. Yet you still resist us. And now this…thing inside your head attacked Freed when he tried to touch you. You are slowly becoming a danger to the guild, Lucy."

He regarded me with a stern look marring his features, though his eyes had softened considerably into pools of worry and pleading. "All you have to do is ask. We will help you. But we can't do anything if you don't tell us anything and keep all these secrets to yourself."

I breathed a sigh of my own, halting my—mildly excessive—observation of his body. "Rogue, I—"

"Don't you even think about telling me you can't tell me anything," he snapped. His red eyes flared at his words.

I pressed my lips together at the reprimand and stared at him with narrowed eyes. "I would love to tell you about every little detail of the shit-storm that has become my life," I started sweetly. "However, I have something rolling around in my head that makes that relatively impossible. It literally almost kills me in an attempt to keep my mouth shut. So when I say 'I can't' I mean that I literally _cannot_ actually tell you." By the end of my short rant, I was almost growling and glaring at him.

He only looked at me with cool eyes. "You do realize that one my own Shadows are in there with his. And it is supposed to block that particular feature of his creation. So what, pray tell, is going on that you are still dealing with this problem?" He raised a brow at me as I quickly shut my mouth and looked away as innocently as I could.

 _See? What did I tell you about keeping your mouth shut? Now look what you did!_ I guess Asshole was active again. I tried to ignore the stinging pain pricking at my skull as I turned back to look at Rogue with a smile.

"I guess I forgot about that," I laughed. "I'll just go ahead and let you in on the problem that I am aware of now." The pain started intensifying. Gritting my teeth, I continued, "Gray might choose Team Nastu over me." The pain subsided immediately, and I allowed a sigh to escape my lips. "And I'm okay with that, I guess. But it just hurts. And that's why I was crying myself to sleep against the door." I laughed it off and glanced behind him where I watched dust motes dancing in the light.

He nodded solemnly. He was believing my story. Thank the heavens! "That does sound to be quite the problem. I can understand why that would cause you to cry yourself to sleep." He put a hand over mine in a gesture of comfort. I accepted the light touch, though a small blush started to color my cheeks the longer he looked at me with a sad smile.

He frowned then and cocked his head to the side. "Lucy are you okay? You look a little red." I nodded as my blush deepened at being caught. "Do you have a fever?" All of a sudden I was staring wide-eyed into his red ones and his forehead was touching mine. Then a smirk pulled his lips up and his hands gripped the side of my head.

"Rogue?" I gasped out right before pain exploded beneath my skull. It was almost as bad as what I woke up to this morning.

Rogue was clenching his jaw as he held my head tighter and shut his eyes tight. "Please try to stay calm," he growled out against what looked to be pain of his own.

I felt like there was something crawling up my arm into my head and then it was more pain. It was a battle of Shadows inside my head. I grit my teeth against it but could only barely hang on. And then the pain worsened until it felt like my whole body was covered in flames. An ear-shattering scream ripped out of my throat and echoed back to me, making the pain worse. Rogue was panting through his teeth and I knew my scream was hurting him too with his dragon-hearing but I couldn't stop the endless scream that seemed to literally crawl its way out from my lungs.

After what felt like hours of torment, the pain finally died down. My screams calmed down to small whimpers, and Rogue was beginning to breathe a little more evenly. I sat there with my hands holding my head and my eyes screwed shut against the headache at the back of my head. Whimpers continued to echo around me until I felt the actual tears on my cheeks. Tears that I hadn't allowed to fall during the "war" or whatever the fuck happened. And then I couldn't control it anymore—I was sobbing openly.

Rogue sighed and gathered me in his arms, that I vaguely noticed were very strong. He held me against him while I cried. He whispered soothing words in my ear and rocked me back and forth. It was single-handedly the kindest thing anyone had ever done for me. Usually I cry alone where no one can hear me or see me lose my composure.

When I was finally done embarrassing myself, I looked up at Rogue's face, my hands still fisted in his top. "Rogue, what happened?"

He sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers and screwing his eyes shut. "The Shadow that I thought was mine was actually another one of Zeref's. It was fooling everyone into believing that his Shadow was still under my control. So I had to, not only insert another one of my Shadows, but I had to get a stronger one that would easily overpower Zeref's. It was just really hard trying to get his under wraps before he further made problems for both of us. It was basically a tug-of-war for control."

I nodded quietly, staring at the wall in front of me. "I see."

"Now are you going to tell me anything else? Or are you going to keep pretending everything is okay? We can't help you if you don't give us any information."

I looked back at him and noticed he was staring at me with an encouraging smile. I closed my eyes with a sigh—I've been doing that way too much these days—and hopped off his lap to go sit in the chair across from him. Now that I was relatively clear-headed, I did not trust myself to be in his arms without pouncing on him. Seriously, that man was a Greek god. But I digress.

"Okay. I suppose I should tell you what's been going on." I then proceeded to tell him about everything that has happened ever since Laxus left. I told him about the two dreams and the fact that Zeref communicates with me while I'm awake. But I left out the part where he looked scared. I felt like that might have been a trick of the light.

"So…He just wants to talk to you? But what exactly does he want you to accept him for? Why can't he just talk to you in your dreams like he's been doing and tell you what he wants you to know?" He seemed frustrated with the fact that he didn't have any answers for me.

"Maybe he wants the assurance that you can't run away from the information?" We both turned to the voice with surprise. Gray was standing there awkwardly with the rest of the gang peeking around a bookshelf behind him. They shrugged at us and watched him cautiously, waiting to see what he was going to say.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "And to what do I owe the pleasure?" I flashed him a sweet smile, hoping he would see the sarcasm. He didn't disappoint.

He coughed and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "I thought about what you said. You made some good points."

I blinked slowly at him and my brows furrowed. "What?"

He sighed and looked like he was struggling with the words trying to leave his mouth. "I just—I think that maybe—you're not wrong. Erza and Natsu haven't been treating you right for a while now. And I noticed it, but I wanted to think they would get over it. But you helped me see that they really don't give a shit about you. They wanted out now that you were posing some degree of difficulty in their lives. I'm sorry Lucy. Me. _I'm_ sorry that it has come to this." He looked angry then—either at himself or Erza and Natsu, I wasn't so sure. "Lucy, you're like a sister to me. I can't keep watching you struggle and not do anything about it. Please, let me be stay by you and help. Please?"

His eyes stared at me, melting with hope and concern. I couldn't help but stare back into his hypnotizing blue eyes the color of a stormy sea. I suppose it was fitting for his character, though. Dark, brooding, and fluid. That's neither here nor there. I shook my head to rid myself of the distracting train of thoughts. I looked back at him with a watery smile, the tears already falling down my cheeks.

"Of course Gray," I answered him. "Why wouldn't I accept your apology?"

I watched the tension disappear from his shoulders before a full-blown grin spread across his face. The next moment, all I could see was black and the smell of pine trees overloaded my nostrils. I also was a little chilly with the body on top of mine.

"Gray," I laughed into his hair. "You're crushing and freezing me."

He jumped back away from me with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, Lu," he chuckled. "Got a little too excited.

I shook my head. "It's fine. Just wanted to breathe again." I looked behind him to the group of mages currently trying to hide behind a bookcase while also looking at the spectacle in front of him. "It's safe to come out you guys." I giggled at them before turning back to Rogue who shrugged.

Levy was the first to come skipping over to the group forming around the couches. She was clutching a book to her chest as she stood in front of me. She seemed a little excited about something that I presumed to be in that book.

"Lucy," she managed to squeak out past her excitement. I stared at her with an eyebrow raised as an indication to keep going. I could see the rest of the group slowly come to sit on the remaining couches and chairs around us from the corner of my eye.

She sighed, as if composing herself, and began, "Lucy I think I understand what Zeref wants. I was looking through old mythologies in the back of the library when I found this little gem. Well, more like Sting picked it up because the thought it was like a fairytale book. You know, fiction? Anyway, he came across an old story that was lost over the years. Look!"

She then shoved the book into my hands and opened it to the page she wanted me to examine. I smiled at her bouncing body and nodded at Gajeel. He wrapped an arm around her waist from his spot behind her and guided her to a chair. She wasted no time in dropping into his lap and staring at me in anticipation. Gajeel rolled his eyes at the whole situation and nodded for me to look at what has her so excited.

I look down to the book in my hands finally and my eyes scan the pages. I briefly process the feeling of the old parchment under my fingertips and the weight of the book on the tops of my thighs. I could sense Rogue moving from his seat to stand behind me so he could read the book too. But I was engrossed in the delicately written words in front of me.

 _Many years ago, in a land far away from the lands of Fiore, there was another world. A world that no one could touch or see. A world that held all the animals that ever were and ever will be. A world where human and beast coexist peacefully. We call this world The Origin. This is where all of life and all of magic was created. Some may call this Eden. Some may call this place Heaven even. But it is simply the beginning._

 _In this world, there lived a young boy. He was barely of an age of understanding or even processing of the world around him when his life changed. He saw the beauty of the world and all has come from it. However, he did not see this world as a truly beautiful place. He saw the lives that moved around him, but he also saw the deaths. The death of good lives that couldn't seem to keep up with the world around them. He saw them come back years later when it was their time. It frightened him. Why wasn't he dying and returning with the rest of them?_

 _He decided he couldn't keep watching these good lives leave him, only to return with no memories of their time together. He wandered to a forest of only animals. A forest where he wouldn't watch humans die. Truly man is a fragile creature, he would think. But as he reached a clearing, he noticed a presence. The presence of a human girl. One around his age. He was about to turn around and walk away before he suffered any further, when he saw what she was doing._

 _She was smiling. She was surrounded by various animals from the surrounding forest and smiling at all of them. She has been described as an angel of light. She was radiant. Her hair shone like spun gold in the burning sun. Her smile seemed to brighten the air around her. He could hardly believe he had simply stumbled upon her. And as he got closer, he realized something odd about her: she was like him._

 _Shock drowned his features as he stared at this angel in front of him. She didn't die, just like him. But if that were true—if she were truly like him—then what did that make her? His soul mate? No, that didn't sound right. They were of the same life, walking the same path, watching the same lives come and go around her, never feeling the effects of time in her body. So sister sounded perfect._

 _During his musing, she had removed herself from playing with the animals to stand in front of him. He jumped back instinctually before apologizing to her and asking what she was doing here in these woods. She only laughed, the air seemingly humming in response. He asked her if she was like him and she nodded. Finally, he asked her why she could smile so freely with so much death around her. This time she smiled softly and caressed his face with the back of her hand._

 _And then she spoke, "Because with death, there is also life. Where you see death, I see the beautiful life that inhabiting the world leaving for a moment so as to come back fresher than ever. Life and death cannot live separately from each other. Life cannot go on forever." Then she shook her head and laughed. "Except for us, of course."_

 _For the first time in years, since realizing his truths, he smiled. Truly smiled. At this stranger. She smiled wide at him. "I like it when you smile best. You look bright." Then she giggled. She threw herself at him in a hug, burying her face in his chest._

 _Caught off guard, he stood still as a statue before melting around her embrace and wrapping his own arms around her as well. He could smell the honey in her hair with the faintest whiff of fresh grass. This was truly beauty in front of him. His sister._

 _Months and years and even decades went by. The angel and the boy walked side by side, both simply living in the world only they shared. Not a soul could touch them or come between their bond. And so they watched the world below them evolve and create new life. They watched friends leave them only to return many years later. They watched every life come and go in every land. It was a blessing to the boy as he slowly grew into manhood._

 _But one day his sister turned to him with tears in her eyes. Anger instantly filled him; a feeling he had never felt before to this degree. He just couldn't forgive anyone who could make this girl – now woman – cry. When he asked her what had caused her such pain, she shook her head violently, more tears coming down her face. Her hair acted as a curtain between him and her soul, annoying him to no end._

 _He gripped her wrists in his hands and shook her until she looked into his eyes. But she wasn't looking at him. It was like she was looking past him. She was looking through him. Her eyes had turned hard as they stared into some kind of world that he could not see. Finally, he let her go and sighed. He stepped back and laid her down in the grass so that she could look into whatever she was looking into comfortably._

 _Hours later she sat up and looked directly at the man. "This world has been targeted. There is someone in one of the worlds that wants to steal magic from the worlds around it. Sometime in the future, someone from this world will steal a large concentration of magic from the land of Fiore to test if it is even feasible to do so. The mages will be turned into magical energy and will die in that world." More tears streamed down her face. "Everyone will die, Brother. Everyone!"_

 _His angel was suddenly hysterical. She was screaming about injustice and cruelty. She thrashed and flailed, even as he grabbed her to try and keep her still. Her hair whipped around her face and her pale wrists were turning red under his vice-like grip. She suddenly became extremely still. Too still, even. She slowly looked up and into his eyes with eyes shining with despair._

" _We can't let them do that to them. They are innocents," she whispered. "We can't let them. I know what we must do." She cocked her head to the side as she looked into his confused gaze and then nodded, her face set into a determined look. "We are going to put me down there. We are going to give me the opportunity to help them."_

" _How? How will we accomplish such a thing? We can't leave this place!" The man seemed desperate that she wouldn't answer the way he was thinking she would._

" _Yes we can. We are probably the only beings in existence that can move freely between worlds. Say you'll help me." She was begging, and she knew it was a low blow. But one that he couldn't possibly resist._

 _He stared deeply into her eyes but found only resolve. He sighed once more and released her wrists. "Please don't ask me to do this."_

 _She smiled sadly. "I must though. You are the only one able to fulfill this task."_

" _You do realize what you're asking me to do, right?" He lazily rolled his head to look at her from where he was reclining back in the grass._

 _She nodded. "I know you have to kill me so that my soul may travel across the plane to the next world. Stop looking at me with such pain in your expression. It's not like I'm going to die or anything." She waved his concerns off with a scoff. He raised a brow at her as if asking her to talk to him seriously. She sighed with a small smile. "I know. It scares me too. But I must go now before it is too late and I am much too young to be of any help to them. Please, Zeref."_

 _He blinked and stared at her in shock. She had used his name. He knew it was serious now. He knew that there was no longer any way to refuse her. His beautiful, caring sister. "When will they target this world?"_

" _Hopefully they won't. If I can stop them at their test run of Fiore, then they may deem it a danger and not try again. Though there is a 40% chance that they will think that they tried the wrong world. That Fiore was filled with too many independently-acting mages and that they must go after a peaceful land…like ours."_

 _She pursed her lips as her brows knit together. It was difficult for her to see a clear line into the future. There were so many decisions yet to be made. But she was able to predict human behavior very well after many years of watching them. He had no choice but to trust her word as absolute truth. As did everyone in their world._

" _Okay, I will help you. But what if you live out your lifetime in Fiore and our world is targeted? How will you return to help us?"_

 _She cupped his face in her small hand. "Then you shall retrieve me. Won't you, Brother? I know you will."_

 _He smiled and leaned forward, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Then I shall send you to Fiore, my dearest sister. My dearest Lucillia." With those last words whispered against her skin, she felt his hand rest against her chest over her heart._

 _She smiled and pulled her head back to look at his face so that it was the last thing she saw. She laid her hand against his cheek. "I'll see you soon Brother," she whispered before his magic crawled through her skin and gripped her heart in its slithery embrace._

 _Her smiling face remained even as "death" finally gripped her. He was silent and mournful as he slid her eyes closed and laid her down against the grass beneath them. He sat staring at her, unbelieving that she was gone. Her body was still and her face still held her smile; almost as if sleeping. And then finally, her soul left her body in search of this land of Fiore. Her body slowly dissipated into nothing._

 _He remained staring at the spot where she once laid to rest for some time before taking a deep breath and stood. He vowed then and there to find a way to locate and retrieve her. He had to. She had to protect their land if they were targeted._

 _I wrote out this memory in case my darling sister does in fact hear it. I am seeking her out. Hopefully I find her before she finds this novel so that she won't have to read such a pitiful memory. But if you do find this, Lucillia, I'm coming for you. Lives are being taken from the land and not being returned. I think that we may be being targeted as you said we might be. Make yourself known to me so that I may bring you home._

 _Your Brother,_

 _Zeref_

*LEVY POV*

When I saw that I was of no help to Lucy in that moment, I was a little heart broken. But it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I just needed to channel it to something more productive. I grabbed Sting and led him to the back of the library with me.

I left him in front of a shelf and simply said, "Search." He immediately obeyed. I think he was scared of what someone who could tame Gajeel could do to him.

I went off to do my own search for old records when I heard him exclaim in excitement. I ran over to where he was holding a large dust-covered tome in his hands. "Did you find something?" I asked, hopeful.

He nodded with a grin and showed me the cover. _Fairy Tales and Other Stories Lost_ , it read. I frowned at him. His grin faltered when he saw my disappointment. And then a thought occurred to me. If Zeref is as old as we all think he is, then any stories about him may have been passed down as legends and forgotten.

Once again, my features were taken over by excitement as I grabbed the book from him. "You're a genius Sting!"

He chuckled and puffed out his chest. "I know," he boasted, and then deflated. "About what?"

I explained my thought process and opened the book with my Gale Force glasses on. I had already begun scanning the book when he sat down behind me to read over my shoulder. Though he was having some difficulty with the speed I was flipping through pages.

And then I found it. "I got it," I whispered. I took off my Gale Force glasses. It was exactly what we were all looking for. This was the final piece to the puzzle! I turned back to Sting with a sad smile. If this information is accurate, then this is really going to change how we are looking at this situation. I don't know how she'll react. I shook my head. No, she needs to see this.

I joined the rest of our group behind one of the bookshelves where we saw Gray enter and begin apologizing to Lucy. As they conversed, I gave the book to the guys and Wendy and had them read it while I watched. When they were done, Gray was jumping into Lucy's arms and they watched the scene with mixed emotions. They couldn't believe what they had just read. Not when she was acting so human in front of us.

We joined the small group when Gray let go of her and I took that moment to show Lucy what I had learned. But I had to act excited so she wouldn't think this was a bad thing. She needed to read this completely unbiased so she could tell us it wasn't true. She just had to.

As she opened the book, Rogue went to stand behind her so that he could read too. I watched them read from my seat on the tops of Gajeel's thighs. I ran through various scenarios in my head, praying to whatever god was listening that this was all just a stupid story so I could get back to my search more seriously. And then she finished reading.

"Holy shit," Lucy whispered. Rogue gripped her shoulder as he read the words on the page. They seemed to be trying to put together the puzzle pieces I had offered them "You don't think….?" Lucy trailed off as she looked up to me. I shrugged and got off of Gajeel's lap.

I walked over to kneel in front of her, taking the book from her hands and carefully setting it down on the table behind me. "Lucy," I whispered. "Breathe."

I heard her take a deep breath in through her nose as her eyes stared into mine. "I'm good," she choked out.

I nodded with a soft smile. "It's okay Lucy. Tell me. What do you think?"

She stared at me as she thought, her eyes shifting between readable and unreadable. And then she froze. Just stopped. She didn't move, she didn't breathe, she didn't even see or hear me trying to get her attention. Suddenly, she gasped in a sharp breath and tears streamed down her face endlessly. She ripped herself from Rogue's grasp and gripped my shoulders tightly in her hands as she sobbed against my shoulder.

"No," she kept choking out. "No! It can't be true! It can't be! Why didn't you just say something? You fucking moron! Why?"

"Lucy?" I rubbed circles on her back soothingly, trying to make sense of what she was saying. Rogue stood behind her chair, not sure what to do. I shook my head at him before he acted though. Now was not a good time to do anything for her. "Lu-chan?" I tried softly.

The sniffles and sobbing stopped as she pulled herself away from me and slouched backwards into the chair. Her eyes stared unseeing at the ceiling. But the scariest part was the way her eyes looked so lifeless. It was like she died. She reminded me of a rag-doll: sprawled across the chair, not moving, lifeless eyes staring at nothing, a silent scream on her parted lips. It was so unnerving that I couldn't stop myself from laying a hand on her arm with tears in my eyes. But I snatched my hand back at how cold she felt. It was truly like she was dead.

"Lu-chan," I whispered in shock. She couldn't have died. She just couldn't have.

No one moved. No one breathed. Everyone was terrified she had actually died. That Zeref had lost his mind and just killed her off. Slowly, Rogue moved his hand in front of her mouth. He was still for a few moments before breathing a deep sigh of relief.

"She's alive," he said. A collective exhale of breath echoed around me, but I stayed still. I took shallow breaths, not quite ready to accept his diagnosis. But when Gajeel's large hand came to rest on my shoulder, I let out my held breath and looked up at him.

"Let's let Bunny-girl rest," he said gruffly. "Whatever is happening in that head of hers, has to happen. So let's go get something to eat. We've been at this all day." I nodded slowly. I let him stand me up and lead me away from where Rogue was settling down into the chair next to her. He shooed everyone away as he gazed at Lucy.

I heard him tell them that he would let us know when she woke up, but I was still worried. That just wasn't natural. Not in any way. I turned to look forward and simply followed Gajeel wherever he took me. When we were passing through the door, I took one last glance back at my best friend before staring at the floor and walking away, gripping Wendy's hand that had slipped into mine at some point. I took in her crying face and prayed she wakes up okay.

 **Hey guys hope you liked it. I know it's been a while and I'm sorry. Hope for the reviews. And hope ya'll liked it. I'll try to update more frequently now that I have Microsoft Office again.**


	6. Some Answers

**Hey guys, I finally hit Winter Break. So I was able to finally update. Thanks for the patience. Hope y'all think it's worth it. Let me know what you think in your reviews. Hope you get some answers out of this. Let me know if I need to change anything to keep up with the timelines from the show/manga. I try to follow the manga generally, but they really aren't deviating so it's not really a concern.**

 **Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns FairyTail**

*LUCY POV*

Reading the story Levy had put in my hands was like a punch to the gut. I just couldn't believe that it could be true. It just couldn't be. It had to be a story that was made up to romanticize Zeref's brutality; that he was only so cruel because he was looking for his sister. But there was just no way that his sister was me. And then I felt it: his sorrow, his pain, his shame. I didn't realize I was crying into Levy's shoulder at his emotional admission of this truth. And then I wasn't here. I was lost in some sort of darkness of my mind.

I was floating in darkness, panic filling my heart. "Hello?" I called out.

The sound of my voice echoing back at me sent a chill down my spine. And then light seemed to fill the air around me, slowly taking on colors and shapes. I watched my surroundings take many different forms around me. I watched what looked to be myself smiling and laughing with Zeref in a richly green meadow. I saw scenes from another life pass by me. I watched this angel converse and hug and interact with Zeref, who also wore a smile on his face. They were both so happy together. She kept calling him "Brother" and he called her "Sister" throughout their conversations.

I watched these scenes in awe. These moments were so familiar to me. I knew exactly what Zeref was going to say in response to what I said. I knew how I would lose my fingers in his hair and laugh at his grumbling under his breath. I could feel his hair between my own fingers as my twin combed through it. And then I saw it: the moment I told him to send me to Fiore.

I turned away from the picture in front of me, already knowing what was happening. I could see it all in my head. I watched his face contort into one of pain and sorrow at my question. I could feel his hand over my heart. I felt his magic enter my body and I felt the cool embrace of death. And then my surroundings faded to black. I stared in to the darkness in complete silence. My memories had all just played out in front of me. My entire immortal life just slammed back into me. My name is Lucillia and I am an immortal soul who moved from my home of The Origin to Fiore to save the wizards of Fairy Tail. There is another immortal soul named Zeref and I recognize him as my brother.

A small choking sound escaped my throat before I doubled over and started heaving. I couldn't believe I had forgotten an entire life. I forgot one of the most important people in my life. It just couldn't be real. How badly had I hurt Brother? How long has he been living without me and waiting for me to seek him out?

"Lucillia, have you remembered me?" Zeref asked as he appeared in front of me.

I looked up at him with tears filling my eyes. "Brother," I sobbed. I threw myself at him. I felt his arms wrap around my body tightly and I cried into his chest. He smoothed my hair and let me express my pain. When I composed myself, I looked up at him and smiled brightly before frowning at him.

"Brother, if you knew who I was, then why have you been so cruel to me?" I stepped away from him and crossed my arms over my chest.

He turned his head away with shame in his features. "I was angry at you for not remembering me. And I didn't want you to get anyone else involved. So, after calculating your Lucy personality's sense of self, I decided that you would react with violence or some other form of retaliation. But I knew that if I used scare tactics, then I could work on finding you and bringing you home without any issues. I failed to consider that your friends would be of any assistance." He looked into my eyes, his own filled with sincerity. "I'm truly sorry, Sister."

I watched him with suspicion eating at my stomach. "You son of bitch," I spat at him. "You put me through so much suffering because of your own selfishness? You brought me terrible nightmares and pain because you wanted me all to yourself? And 'sorry' is all you have to say to me?" I shook my head angrily. I could feel angry tears falling down my face.

He shook his head sadly. "I know. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. I just wanted the process to go by smoothly so that I could bring you home. The Origin is being targeted by those same people from Edolas. We need to save our home. You can make me suffer later in return for your own."

I shook my head, tears still filling my eyes. "None of that explains how you became known as the Black Wizard Zeref, feared by all. So tell me. What have you been doing in my absence, _Brother_?" I sneered his name as I stepped away from him. I could feel myself trembling from my rage and wrapped my arms around myself to try and steady the storm in my soul.

Again, he looked away in shame. I hissed at him and grabbed his chin to turn him to face me. "Come on, Dark Wizard, look at me in your twisted sense of pride. Tell me all the cruelty you have bestowed upon others in your effort to find me. Did you enjoy it? Did you smile as people fell at your feet? Did you laugh when they begged you to spare their life? Tell me! Don't look away from me as if you are ashamed of yourself! Take responsibility, damnit!"

I held him there, my glare matching his cold gaze. I was not going to let him just walk away from this without first feeling my wrath. Suddenly his hand was wrapped around my wrist. I glanced down to where he was holding me and I took a moment to register that it was a hold, not a grip. I looked back up at him as he slowly pulled my hand off his face.

"Lucillia," he whispered, his voice breaking. "Lucillia, I just….I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." And with that he gripped my hand in both of his and held it against his forehead as he fell to his knees in front of me. I tried to pull my hand away from him, but he wouldn't let me go. And so there I stood, watching the Dark Wizard Zeref sob on his knees in front of me, begging for forgiveness. I couldn't believe it.

I mean, I could. We did spend several lifetimes together, but this was different. He was known in this world as cold-hearted and dastardly. I just couldn't piece these two personalities together to create this sobbing child in front of me. But watching him cry out to me, humbling himself, I couldn't even hold onto my anger anymore. I slid to my own knees and gathered him into my arms. I smoothed his hair and whispered soothing words to him as he gripped my comparatively smaller body like I was his life.

"Brother," I whispered. "You do need to answer my questions." I tried to sound as soothing as I could, but I couldn't seem to push past the slight edge in my voice. I'm sure he noticed too because he stiffened slightly before looking up at me.

He sighed and wiped his face. "As we both know, we can only travel worlds by dying in one and then directing our soul elsewhere right? Well, I found a way to travel without death. But by doing so, my magic gets out of control because my body was not meant to be in this world. It has a different atmosphere that doesn't allow my body to restrain my magic." He took a deep breath. "So when I got here, my magic kept seeping out of my soul and attacking my surroundings. Any time I tried to get close to someone to ask them to help me understand this world's magic they would die. Any time I walked too close to the edge of a town, the nearest people would perish. Or worse, when I warned people to stay away from me and secluded myself, some stupid adventurer would find me and they too would fall victim to this curse.

"I never wanted anyone to die. I never wanted anyone to suffer. It hurt me to watch the life leave their eyes. Oh Lucillia, it hurt so much. But then I figured out how to contain the magic. It took me five years. But it was still unstable. Occasionally it would just need to be released, which would cause wide-spread disaster. And it reacted to my emotions too strongly.

"And then I got close to this girl here. She was a ghost living on your guild's sacred island—though, at the time, I had no idea. Apparently when she was alive and well, she learned how to visit our world in her dreams. She couldn't stay there for very long and would disappear after a couple hours. But she learned how to project herself across universes! And we've met her before Sister. You and I, together. She was that little blond girl that would play tag with us in the woods. Do you remember?"

I sat there quietly whilst my mind searched through the centuries of memories until I stopped on one with Zeref and I hiding behind a tree from this small little girl with light in her eyes and gold in her hair. A small gasp left my lips at what I saw. Mavis was the little girl! Mavis, our guild founder, was friend to the Black Wizard Zeref and his "sister" referred to as an angel in storybooks. This was just unreal.

"Yes, it really was. When I heard her voice again, I thought I was dreaming since I couldn't see her. It turns out that only those with her symbol would be able to see her, but because of my body remaining intact from our land and her soul having visited our land in the past, I was able to at least maintain some form of communication. She tried to help me adapt to this world the best she could with how little access she had to me, but then she finally told me where you were and how to find you so I left….and then all that awful stuff happened." He mumbled his last statement in shame and looked away from me, but never leaving my embrace.

"Zeref, why did you join those dark guilds? Why did you help them carry out those plans?"

He sighed again and looked me in the eye. "When they found me, they thought that my true self was lost to some kind of weaker self. They wanted me to 'wake up' and help them kill people like I had done in the past. They thought I had killed all those people on purpose. They said they would help me in whatever way I needed. I thought that if I could get them on my side, I could use them to just kind of get you back easily. I failed to entertain the thought that they wouldn't cooperate."

"And the demons from the book of Zeref?"

"I tried to create creatures stronger than I in case I wasn't enough to retrieve you."

I sighed. A heavy, deep sigh, laden with mixed emotions. "Zeref, my dear Brother," I shook my head. "You know you can't get away with all this that easily right? You'll have to pay for your crimes somehow. I'm sure you could be pardoned to some extent for the accidents, but the creation of those demons, and working with dark guilds…well, that's a different story."

He looked up at me, his wide eyes filled with hope. I had never seen him so hopeful or joyous in my life. He has always been so closed off. He has never had a reason to hope for anything when all that we could ever want was within reach back in The Origin.

"Zeref," I said quietly, looking down at him with a soft smile. I ran my fingers through his hair and watched him relax completely. "Tell me more about what is happening back home and what we need to do. It's too late for me to go back the way we know how to go back to help everyone. I'll have to be born again. My body has already vanished into nothing in our world. By the time I can regain my original body and fully grasp the situation at hand, it will be too late." I looked down to the darkness beneath my legs with sorrow filling my heart.

"There may be another way," a voice drifted to us. I turned toward the voice, knowing exactly who had joined our reunion. I turned toward our dear old friend, Mavis, with a kind smile on my face.

"It has been so long since I last saw you as myself, dear Mavis," I said softly. She smiled under my recognition and came to stand before us, though her standing height was at eye-level with the two of us on our knees. She sighed when she felt my hand against her cheek and held onto my wrist as if it were a reassurance that I was there. She must have felt lonely, looking at an old friend and not being recognized. "I am sorry it took so long. I hope that I can make it up to you soon and play in the woods like we used to." She nodded with tears filling her wide, childlike eyes.

"Oh Mavis!" Zeref suddenly gasped. "It really is you! I can actually see you now. Why?"

Mavis giggled and patted his head like a child. "Silly, of course you can see me. We are all in Lucillia's mind after all. So if she can see me—which she can because of her guild mark—then so can you." She shook her head and gave me a disbelieving look. I simply shrugged my shoulders at her and smiled at Zeref.

"Now what idea did you have, Mavis?" She jumped excitedly and gripped each of our hands her small ones.

"Astral projection!" she exclaimed as if it were obvious. "You just need to project yourself to The Origin like I used to do. And Zeref just needs to return to the world the same way he came here. Though his methods were rudimentary and crude, it will be the only way to return for him."

He glared at the slight insult before sighing and nodding in agreement to her idea. "It's not a bad plan," he stated. "It shouldn't be that hard with your innate magical abilities from living in The Origin and from your continuation of that knowledge through your work with your celestial spirits."

I nodded with him and pet Mavis's hair. "You're so smart. How did you get like that in such a short amount of time?"

She giggled. "Technically I'm older than you in this world."

"Yeah, well, I'm older than you in all worlds."

She laughed outright at that and jumped between Zeref and I to hug us. "I'm so glad I have my friends back."

"We are too," Zeref said softly.

"I'm still mad at you for being evil the last couple of years," she said with a pout. She turned to Zeref with a reprimand on her tongue.

"Mavis, I think he's had enough today." I calmed her instantly and she sagged against my chest. "Well, I guess it's about time I returned to my reality so that I can explain everything. Mavis, you and are going to have a talk about your astral projection business when I get back." She nodded sagely and walked away from us into the darkness. "And you, Brother, will join me back at FairyTail, where I will explain everything and you will seek their forgiveness. You hear me?"

He shied away from the admonishment and nodded. His eyes grew fearful and he tried desperately to hide it. "I understand. Send me a signal when you're ready for me?" I nodded and watched him disappear as well.

With a sigh, I shut my eyes to my own mind and allowed myself to float back to my body.

*GRAY POV*

This whole thing about Zeref being Lucy's brother and that she and him were both immortal beings from another world was quite literally frying my brain. I couldn't even begin to grasp the concepts that were put before me. I had just decided to stick to her side through thick and thin and this is thrown at me? Talk about a real test of courage. But, seriously, why the hell was this happening to her? She is one of the brightest people I know, and now she's chained to the most evil creation of our world? It all just seems unfair, in my opinion.

I knew she was having problems before, that was not lost on me. Natsu and Erza wanted to pretend it wasn't happening. They thought she would get out of her own head eventually and move on to being back to her usual self. They thought that maybe she was just looking for attention. I knew better, but I failed to defend her or ask what I could do for her. That will be something I need to work toward forgiving myself for and something that I need to show her won't happen again. I need her trust back. She's like a sister to me.

I was sitting in the library with Rogue, playing a riveting game of "Go Fish" since it was my turn to be with the two of them. The rest of us were on rotation to look after Lucy with him since he refused to leave her side and we didn't want to just leave her. She had been in her comatose state for almost four days now without any food or water. Levy was getting increasingly more worried that it might affect her body or that she might wake up with some kind of mental deficiency. Gajeel was having a tough time keeping her under control.

Laxus had just come back from his trip with Ever this morning, having gotten the news that more information on Zeref was no longer needed. He had come back in a panic, huffing and damn-near crying with Ever right behind him. He demanded to see Lucy immediately but Levy got in his way and kept him from the library. It was truly a sight to see Laxus being held off by such a small girl.

"Levy," Laxus growled out, trying to weave around her to get to the library door behind her. "Let me see her, damnit!"

"Laxus," she warned with a somber expression. "No one is going to be seeing her. She's been unresponsive for about four days. We have a set rotation on who will watch over her and it's not your turn."

"She is my sister, damn you! I need to see her now! I need to know she is okay!" He suddenly went to lunge at Levy but was held back by Gajeel the second his muscles coiled to move.

"Oi, Sparkplug," Gajeel growled in his ear. "You make a move at my mate, and I'm going to have to rip you apart. I don't care if Bunny-Girl is your sister or you goddamned mother. You make a move toward Levy, and I'll let my dragon take care of you. You hear me?"

Laxus relaxed in Gajeel's hold and his head bowed in defeat. "I need to see her," he kept mumbling to himself.

Over his head, Gajeel nodded to Freed to come to his aid in pulling Laxus away from the door since he still was weakly struggling to get through. It took the two of them, along with some other members of the guild, to convince him to walk away and to be patient. After watching that scene, I had retreated to the library for my turn on the rotation and to fill Rogue in on what was going on.

"So he's not happy?" he asked as he handed me his six of clubs.

I placed the card in my hand and pulled it out with its match to place it on the table. "No. He's pretty upset. He's been confined to Gramps's office for the day."

He nodded quietly and stared at his hand of cards. We continued our game in silence for a few more moments before Rogue suddenly froze and stared at the wall behind me. He seemed intent on paying strict attention to whatever he was focused on. His head whipped to the side to stare at Lucy with a fiery gaze, causing me to sit straighter in my seat and wait for something to happen that he was obviously anticipating.

After a few more seconds of the two of us watching her very carefully, her mouth parted and her chest rose with her first breath in days. Tears filled my eyes before I could stop it as I watched her inhale so quickly and suddenly that I thought she had just been revived from a near-death experience—which is honestly what it looked like.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she struggled to gather in air to her lungs. She turned her head to Rogue, her eyes pleading for help as she continued to fight for every breath.

His red eyes widened in fear as he realized that she was truly fighting and ran to sit in front of her. I watched with my hand covering my mouth to prevent any sobs from breaking through as he propped her to a sitting position and kneeled between her legs. He brought her forward and held her steady as she clawed at her chest and throat. He leaned his forehead against hers and whispered at her softly.

"Lucy, breathe," he kept whispering to her. "Breathe with me. Calm down. Just focus on my breathing. Regulate yours to match mine. Come on, you can do it." He slowly moved his eyes to stare straight at me as he continued to maintain a steady pace for Lucy to follow. "Gray, go inform everyone of what's happening. But do not enter until I say so. She cannot afford any excitement that could break her focus."

With that command, I ran out of the room to the sound of her trying to breathe with the Shadow dragon slayer. As soon as the door was shut behind me with a loud slam, I saw everyone turn their head to look at me. It didn't take long for Levy and Laxus to run to my side as they helped me get to a table where I could sit down, since I was still struggling with my tears.

I could tell, by the strength with which Laxus held me, that he was straining not to run in there. "How is she? What happened?" Laxus's words received no response immediately and he tried to run back to the library until my hand on his arm stopped him.

After collecting myself, I turned to look at him with a grim smile on my face. "She's awake and alive." My words were broken and almost a whisper, but they came across to him well enough.

I watched the tension leave his shoulders as he sagged forward, a breath of relief passing through his lips. He turned to go to the library but my hand had yet to leave his arm and he gave me a questioning look. "Is there something else?"

I closed my eyes and shook my head, my eyes watering slightly. "She is having some trouble breathing at the moment. Rogue is trying to help her but he needs absolute concentration to get her to follow his breathing. He asked me to request no one bothers him."

I watched the color drain from his face as he fell back into the chair behind him, his eyes glued to the door. I could tell he was waiting for Rogue to give some sort of signal that we could return. I was honestly surprised that he wasn't fighting it more.

"Well I'm obviously not going to endanger her just because I'm impatient," he muttered. He turned to me. "I see the confusion on your face. I'm not going to run in there and disrupt his efforts to get her back on track."

Levy nodded on my other side. "It makes sense," she said. "She's been unresponsive and barely breathing, not eating or drinking, for the last few days. It would only make sense that she would need to get back her breathing pattern with some assistance."

I looked over at her with wide eyes. She had dark circles under her flat eyes, and her lips barely moved with her words. She was staring at the table, dried tear marks on her cheeks. I could see some excitement beginning to build in her muscles as she strained to keep sitting at the table. Her eyes were slowly beginning to come back to life as she began to process what everything meant. Once all the information set in, she turned to me with the first sign of emotion on her face in four days.

"She's awake," she whispered to us. "She's finally awake." Tears filled her eyes once more as she threw herself into my arms.

My own arms immediately lifted and were about to wrap around her when Gajeel stomped over and picked her up so that she could cling to him. He glared at me over her blue head before leaning his head against hers and holding her. He pet her hair and whispered soothing words in her ear.

I heard Laxus snort beside me at the blatant display of jealousy before whipping his head to turn to the library door. I growled softly to myself. Damn dragon slayers and knowing what's happening before I did. As I thought that, a shadow crawled along the floor from under the library door toward us. It came up to my shoe and pulled on my shoe lace lightly.

"I'm guessing Rogue is telling us that we can go see her," I said with a small smile. Before the words could even leave my mouth, Laxus and Levy were already opening the door, Gajeel and the I following with smiles on our faces. I could hear Freed and the others following us to the door, anticipation on their faces.

 **Thanks for reading and sorry for the late update. I hope you'll still read and review.**


	7. Forgiveness

**Sorry about the lapse in updating. Finals and all that. But now it's summer. So hopefully, I will have more updates in store for all you still reading. This chapter is also longer to make up for lost time as well. Let me know what you think in the reviews!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairytail**.

*LUCY POV*

When I finally landed back into my body, I felt heavy immediately. The feeling of going from a weightless spirit to a physical form again was disappointing and almost painful. I could feel gravity pulling down on me, as if trying to pull me right through my body to the ground. And then I realized that I wasn't breathing. I opened my mouth slightly and pulled in a deep breath of air as quickly as I could. I had no idea how long I've been out, but I remember from past experiences that my body goes into hibernation when I'm not in it. So I'm sure my body hasn't really been doing any more than keeping itself functioning on the most minimal of needs, such as breathing.

As soon as that air touched my lungs, it felt as though I hadn't been breathing in months. A moment of panic gripped me as I considered the idea that I have indeed been unconscious for months. The panic faded into a new panic as I realized that I was struggling to breathe. It was almost like I had forgotten how. I turned to look around me and immediately locked eyes with a pair of red ones a few feet from me. I tried to convey to him with my eyes that I was struggling. He seemed to get the picture because he was suddenly in front of me, tilting my body to a sitting position so I could lean against him and stretch my lungs back out to their full range of expansion.

With my body upright, I could feel the burning of the air passing through my throat and into my lungs. Filled with mindless panic, I could feel my nails scratching against the skin covering my neck and chest. He kept whispering something at me, but all I could hear was my blood rushing past my ears and my frantic gasping. Hyperventilating. That's what I was doing. He stopped talking to and looking at me for a moment to talk to someone else. He looked back to me and leaned his forehead against mine again.

I could see his lips moving as his red eyes burned into my brown ones. At that moment, above all the hysterics, I couldn't believe a man could have eyes that damned beautiful. I immediately shoved that thought to the back of my mind and focused my attention on my lungs. I needed to fill them with as much air as I could as quickly as I could.

I moved my eyes from Rogue's to his chest. I watched it move with every breath in and out. I needed to match that pace. Easy enough. With my eyes glued to his chest, I slowly pulled in short bursts of air and held it in my lungs for a moment before exhaling it in more bursts. Not the best deep breath I could have ever taken, but at least I have a rhythm set now. So I kept to that rhythm as I slowly paced my breathing to his. Eventually, I was finally able to pull in one solid and stable breath into my lungs and push it out in one fluid motion.

I nodded to Rogue that he could move away from me, that I had finally gotten my breathing pattern back. He didn't move. I looked up to see his eyes glued to my face, more specifically my lips. My breath hitched for a moment, not because I couldn't breathe again, but because a warm feeling spread throughout my entire body at the way he was watching me. His red eyes seemed almost crimson as his chest moved with slightly shorter breaths. His fingers gripped the arm rests of the seat I was sitting on so hard, his knuckles turned white.

I couldn't move or speak as I watched him. Waiting. I was waiting in anticipation of what I could potentially expect from this man in the next few moments. I was seriously hoping he was going to kiss me. God, what I wouldn't give to feel his lips on mine. They look full so I imagine his kiss will be soft and playful. I felt a blush color my cheeks as I flicked my gaze to his lips just in time to catch his tongue dragging over them slowly, like a predator staring down his prey.

I struggled to pull in deep breaths as I watched him. Suddenly his eyes snapped up to meet mine. My breathing stuttered and my lips parted to draw in more air. The longer I stared into his eyes, the bigger they seemed to get. When I felt his warm breath fan over my face, I realized that his eyes weren't getting bigger. He was getting closer. He was a touch away from me. I just had to flinch and my lips would be on his. But he wasn't moving. No, he was provoking. He wanted me to make the first move. He was waiting to see if I would give in to my own desires.

And desires, I had. Oh, how I wanted to rip my clothes from my body and feel his skin against mine. I wanted to feel his nails drag against my scalp as his fingers tangled in my hair. I shivered at the thought. He seemed to notice by the way his arms tensed, like he was going to grab me. It felt like fire was licking at my skin from underneath suddenly. I was breathing shorter, but deeper breaths as I watched him.

I moved my eyes back to his piercing gaze and knew that I couldn't suppress these desires any longer. I pushed forward in an instant, locking our lips together and wrapping my arms around his neck. I was still a little unbalanced so I pulled him down over me as I lay back in the chair. One arm wrapped around my waist tightly as his other gripped the arm rest to keep him from completely laying on top of me. It was a frenzy of gripping clothes and locked lips. We didn't part until both of us were struggling to breathe.

When we finally did, his lips dragged down my chin and over the column of my throat, his teeth dragging lightly over the sensitive skin there. I shivered as my fingers twisted in his soft black hair—much softer than it looked. His warm breath fanned across my neck as he breathed and slowly pulled himself away from me. By the way his hand tightened against my waist, I could tell it took a lot of self-control.

"We can't do this," he rasped. "Not here. Not now. There are still a lot of questions unanswered."

His words were a bucket of cold water. I snapped back to reality just in time to see one of his shadows slithering out under the door, presumably to alert the others to my consciousness. I let go of his shirt that I was gripping in my hands and leaned further back into the chair to put distance between us. He gave me one last, long look with his darkened red eyes before closing them and sighing. He shook his head and made a very visible effort to push himself into the chair adjacent to mine. He leaned back into it as he regained his composure and took a deep breath.

As expected, it didn't take long for everyone to file into our little corner of the library. Laxus was the first person in the door. He took one look at me and charged to my position. He gathered me into his arms the instant he was in my vicinity and buried his nose into my hair.

"Hey!" I squeaked when his nose tickled my neck. A blush rose to my cheeks as I remembered whose lips had been there just moments before. I swatted at his head and told him to put me down.

He stopped his nuzzling and sniffing for a moment and stilled. He slowly turned his head to Rogue and growled low in his throat as he clutched me tighter to his chest. "What did you do?" he rumbled. I frowned when I realized that he had smelled Rogue on me from earlier.

"Laxus," I warned. "You better think twice before you say what you're about to say." He turned his head toward me and took in my appearance. I'm not sure what he saw, but I'm sure he caught the faint blush still glowing on my cheeks and the way my hair was a mess atop my head. I'm sure he also caught the warning glare burning in my eyes because he slowly sat down with me in his lap, almost guarding me.

I sighed. This is probably the best I'm going to get. He was still glaring at Rogue over my head though. Thank the heavens Rogue didn't glare back. I was not prepared to deal with two dragons fighting in the library.

"Lucy," a voice said hesitantly from behind the debacle unfolding. I crawled over Laxus to peer over his shoulder and saw Levy standing there in front of Gajeel, Gray, and the rest of the Thunder Legion. Her eyes were watery and her hands clasped together nervously in front of her. She was staring at me in hope. I smiled at her. She let out a breath I didn't know she had been holding and ran over to us as well.

Laxus loosened his grip on me as she pulled me out of his arms, causing us both to collapse to the floor. She sobbed into my shirt as I rubbed her hair and tried to soothe her. Gajeel came over and picked us both up in a hug. She curled against his chest without letting go of me.

I laughed nervously. "So are we doing a group hug right now?"

Everyone else laughed. They looked to each other before shrugging and joining in the hug. Even Laxus and Rogue joined us in this awkward standing dog pile.

"Glad you're finally awake, Bunny-Girl," Gajeel rumbled. "You had us worried sick."

"How long was I out?" I looked around to everyone, seeking an answer.

"Four days," Gray answered. "Laxus and Ever got back from their search just this morning. But the rest of us have been with you this entire time." Gajeel and everyone separated finally and began moving to various spots around the chair I was forced to occupy by Laxus pulling me back into his lap.

"Rogue never even left your side," Levy giggled. "I think he felt like it was his obligation to stay with you since he was the only one who could keep an eye on Zeref's Shadow thing in your head."

I looked over to Rogue who was looking away from me with a light blush dusting his cheeks. "I am the only one who can help so it's obvious I would be unable to leave your side," he grumbled.

I rolled my eyes and giggled. He's kind of cute when he gets shy. I shook my head and looked back to Levy. "So what did I miss?"

Levy shook her head at me. "No you first. What the hell happened?" She looked distraught as she remembered something.

I smiled softly and nodded. "So the letter in the book you found was real. And I am most definitely Zeref's sister. We are immortal beings from a different world called the Origin by humanity. When I came to this world, I had forgotten my past life and took on the role of Lucy, as you know me. But Zeref has spent the last twenty years looking for me through a very rough method of moving between worlds. Which is why his magic was so unstable; it was unable to adapt to a world bursting with magic like ours to one where magic is so restricted to the body.

"What you all saw was what happens when I am able to communicate between worlds or with other people of my kind. I go into a trance where I enter a neutral dimension that all beings may occupy with the proper training. I spent the last—I guess—four days in that world speaking with Brother. Though it really only felt like an hour or two. So I'm assuming an hour in the neutral plain takes up two days in yours—ours. I'm still trying to get used to having my full lifetime back in my memory." I shook my head as my brow furrowed. It felt like everything was a dream and I was going to wake up soon. I was really struggling with my new—old—reality.

"So what do we do now that we know Zeref is searching for his sister rather than trying to take over the world?" Sting asked.

I smiled a little patronizingly at him. "Well we are going to invite him over for dinner and drinks."

The room went deadly silent in that moment. I looked around at everyone with an arched eyebrow. They were all looking between each other with a nervous look. Levy was twisting her fingers as she looked up at Gajeel. Sting and Rogue were sharing a loaded look. Gray looked at a random pile of books on the table off to the right. Wendy looked at her feet. And the Thunder Legion all shared a look with Laxus above my head.

"Oh, so, we can give Sabertooth, Flare, and literally all of our enemies a second chance at redemption and forgiveness regardless of their mistakes, but not Zeref?" I narrowed my eyes at everyone, before turning my glare on Laxus.

"That's different," Laxus growled. "They never killed anyone."

"Bullshit," I spat as I shoved myself out of his lap and to my feet. "No offense but I remember Gajeel bragging to me about killing people. Sting and Rogue killed their parents. Hell, you and Ever were threatening to kill me and all the other girls during Fantasia! And Fairy Tail all forgave you the instant you bowed your head in humility! Yet, you will turn away Zeref even knowing that those deaths were not intentional, but a result of a very hare-brained idea to get to our world!? Fuck you, Laxus!"

By the end of my speech I was panting with rage as I stared him down. My teeth clenched when he wouldn't look at me. I spun around to level everyone with my heated gaze. My hands were balled into tight fists at my side. Watching how everyone looked fearful of me at that moment brought me to the realization that I needed to calm down. So I took a deep breath and turned back to Laxus, who looked both furious and despaired.

"Listen," I said softer. I fell to my knees in front of him and took his large face in my hands. "You are family to me. But so is he. I will take full responsibility for any trouble he causes here. But he needs my help, and possibly all of ours. He says our world is being targeted by Edolas. And I am the only one able to really stop the magic from being pulled from our world. So I am going to trust in him. I have known him for many many years. Many more than any of you could ever possibly understand. So if nothing else, please trust me."

I gazed into his eyes, my own stinging with tears. His eyes betrayed the hurt and the guilt he was feeling. He closed his eyes and looked down at my knees against the ground. His shoulders slumped and he wrapped his arms around my waist, bringing me against his body. He buried his face in my shoulder and sighed heavily, his breath tickling the skin there. I swatted at his head.

"Laxus," I giggled. "Stop playing. What's your answer?"

He loosened his arms enough for me to pull myself away from him. He looked up at me and nodded slowly. His lips turned into a small, strained smile. "If you trust him, and if he truly is telling the truth in that letter, then I will have to allow him to come to Fairy Tail and say his peace," he acquiesced. I grinned and was about to pull him into a hug when he put up a hand to stop me. "But, he has to gain our forgiveness first, talk to Gramps, and gain some modicum of trust from us before we allow him to go before the guild with his apology with so little support. No one can know he is here. And the second he starts something, I'm going to have to have the entire guild ready to kill. I'm sorry Lucy, but that's the way it has to be."

I nodded and hugged him tight. "Thank you Laxus for trusting me!" He laughed and patted my back before I jumped up to my feet to face everyone with a small blush staining my cheeks.

"I'm sorry guys for getting so mad at you and opening old wounds," I said quietly, twisting my fingers nervously.

They all shared a look before sighing and nodding their forgiveness. Everyone here had made peace with how they had hurt each other and had no problems with the fact that I had brought it up. But the ones I was most worried about was Rogue and Sting—specifically Rogue. I turned carefully to where Rogue was sitting down with his head bowed and Sting standing behind him, staring at the top of Rogue's head. They were really a great and compassionate team. I admired them for that.

"Sting? Rogue?" I whispered as I slowly came to stand in front of them. I got on my knees in front of them and bowed deeply until my forehead touched the ground. My hair fell over my shoulders to form a curtain around the sides of my face. I kept my hands laying out in front of me, flat on the ground. "I apologize deeply for rehashing such a hurtful past and bringing it to light in such a way as I did. I humbly beg for your forgiveness."

I felt Laxus's hand on my shoulder as he tried to pick me off the ground. "Come on, Lucy, that's not necessary," he whispered.

I shook him off and stayed on my position. No one spoke a single word nor tried to touch me again. They knew that if I would pull such a position of apology, I was truly regretful of this. They understood the need for this. Their pasts were dealt with appropriately with the help of their nakama and gained forgiveness for their actions. But what I said about Sting and Rogue. That was simply cruel. They had no one but each other to work through this pain. They were unable to really process what they had done and seek forgiveness for it. Who could they ask? The only parties able to grant that kind of forgiveness were dead because of their actions. And I had no right to drag that through the mud. I can only imagine the amount of pain they have suffered because of this.

It was actually kind of terrifying to take this position on the ground. My head bowed, my body prostrated before them. To give them so much power over whether or not I walked away from this with a clear conscience. I trembled softly at the idea that I had single-handedly destroyed the truce between Fairy Tail and Sabertooth.

"Lucy," Rogue whispered. I felt his warm hand against my shoulder blade, left uncovered by the purple tank top I had donned four days ago. I bent my neck so that I was looking at Rogue and Sting, who both wore matching sad smiles. "We have moved on from our sins. You guys at Fairy Tail allowed us that privilege through your compassion and family atmosphere. We were able to finally come to terms with that part of our lives because you guys."

"Yeah," Sting butt in. "You guys gave us so much more than we could have ever imagined. And we aren't even in the same guild. It's pretty cool. So there's no need to beg for forgiveness because there's nothing to forgive you for. You are right. We have no right to judge Zeref. He's your brother and those deaths were an accident. He wants to atone for those. What more can we ask for of him?"

My jaw dropped and I felt like I couldn't move. Sting was being so mature for once. I could hardly believe it. Rogue grabbed me from under my arms and pulled me up to my knees before getting on his own in front of me. My eyes slowly moved from Sting to Rogue as he chuckled. His fingers came under my chin and shut my jaw for me. My cheeks burned at the memory of what else he could do to my jaw and neck. I looked away from his eyes and nodded slowly for him to say what it looked like he was going to say.

"So?" he said softly. "Why don't you go ahead and call him here and we will go get Master Makorov for us all to discuss the next events?"

I nodded as if in a trance and slowly stood. I sat in the open chair next to Laxus and smiled at Rogue and Sting when I got my mind back together.

"I'm sorry for acting like a ditz. It just surprised me that Sting could be so mature and composed." I laughed.

And like that, the tension was broken. Everyone around us started laughing as Sting looked at us confused. "What? I'm always mature." His declaration only led to us all laughing even harder. I caught a glimpse of one of Rogue's Shadows flitting across the floor and out of the library from under the door. I sighed. I guess it was as good a time as any to let Zeref know he was safe…for now.

I leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes, feeling all the muscles in my body relax. I was vaguely aware of everyone in the room staring at me but I immediately tuned out the feeling of their eyes on me. I felt my mind drift as I sought out Zeref's.

"Brother," I whispered into the void between souls. "It is safe to come to Fairy Tail but I highly recommend simply appearing before me where no one can see you. You should also conceal your presence so that no one else in the guild knows you are here. You need to first gain the approval of the people around me before we allow you to beg for the entire guild's approval."

"I understand Sister. I shall be there shortly," he whispered back. I came back to my own body and opened my eyes. Wendy came forward shyly and sat in my lap without any words. I didn't protest and wrapped my arms around her. She was so young and being forced to watch all this must be taking its toll on her.

"How long until Master gets here?" I asked Rogue.

He smiled at me and nodded to the door right as Master came into the library looking excited. Rogue's Shadow locked the door behind him and ushered him over to where we were all sitting. He hopped onto the arm rest on Laxus's seat and looked to me with a wide grin.

*MAKOROV POV*

It has been a tough time lately for my children. I have been helplessly sitting off to the side watching as the light of my guild dimmed slowly but surely. I could do nothing for her. How could I? She would not allow anyone to really get close enough to see the pain she hid. And now, here I sit at my desk, several weeks after the incident with the Twin Dragon Slayers barging through the doors and Lucy finally telling us what has been going on, while she lies unconscious in my library just downstairs.

I sighed again as I looked over all the papers sitting over my desk. Team Natsu have been disbanded for the time being to reflect on their actions and disregard for their nakama, so the number of complaints I've been getting has been halved. It doesn't stop the complaints though. Team Natsu isn't the only group with self-control issues in my guild. I sighed again as I signed away another 2,000 Jewel to a town Cana had just been at. Unsurprisingly, she drank all their booze. I rolled my eyes again at the complaint and dropped my head against the desk with a deep breath.

Such a trial it has been. Poor Lucy being comatose, Laxus finding himself his kin, Bickslow showing interest in his guild as more than just a guild, Team Natsu being thoughtless and cruel. And then there's Rogue. It's obvious there are some feelings there and I really hope they realize it soon. A slow smile crawled across my face at the thought. Oh that would be so cute! The Shadow dragon slayer and the Celestial mage. What a pair! I sighed dreamily as I imagined their beautiful babies sure to come.

Suddenly a cold chill swept over my arm outstretched over the desk. I shivered and sat up straight as quick as I could. I looked around my office, on alert as to what could have caused such a strange phenomenon. Then the chill swept over the back of my neck. I spun around and caught sight of a small shadow dancing away from me, almost as if it were frightened of me. I looked around my office and noted the stillness of the other shadows around the room. I looked to the one in question that was swaying back and forth across my floor. I smiled. Rogue was calling me to the library. Lucy must have woken up!

A large smile pulled my cheeks then as I chuckled softly to myself. "Alright I'm coming," I whispered to it. It poked at my foot and made its way out and back toward the library—an obvious sign that it expected me to follow. I shook my head and made my way over to the library as quickly as I could. I walked through the door and saw my children all gathered around the light of our guild watching me with wary gazes.

I watched as Lucy ushered me over with a small smile on her face and Wendy snuggling into her chest. I walked over and sat in an empty chair across from her with a proud grin on my face.

"Glad to know you are awake again, my child," I said. She smiled brightly and nodded in agreement. I noticed the way Laxus was glaring at Rogue every once in a while and made note to talk to him about it again later.

"So Master, I have something I need to share with you and it's going to be extremely upsetting," Lucy said cautiously. I nodded slowly and readjusted myself in preparation of whatever news she was about to give me. "Zeref is on his way here to the guild. He will mask his presence so that no one else will know he is here. But we need to all have a long discussion about some things."

I stared at her for a few moments, watching the sweat bead on her temple, before I blinked owlishly and laughed. "My dear, for a second, it sounded like you said Zeref."

She gave no indication of laughing with me and neither did any of the other people around us. I stared at them all, hoping that one of them would start laughing and say it was a prank. But all she did was tell me that he needs to reconcile with us and explain some things himself and that he and her are connected by something none of us could ever understand.

As I was about to start yelling about everyone losing their minds, Zeref appeared in a cloud of black smoke behind Lucy. He laid a hand on her shoulder and she laid her own over his. Everyone gasped and seemed to be restraining themselves from moving into action. I, on the other hand, was frozen in place because I couldn't believe that the dark wizard Zeref was actually standing in my guild with someone we all held in such high esteem.

"You've got to be kidding me," I whispered. Wendy seemed to be shaking, but all she did was snuggle further into Lucy and grip her waist tightly.

"We are not kidding, Makarov," a gentle, child-like voice said from next to me. A feather seemed to have dropped on my shoulder. But when I looked over, the First was looking at me with a smile and her eyes told me to keep my mouth shut. "This is Zeref. He and I have known each other for a very long time. But not nearly as long as Lucy and him have known each other. Please just listen to them."

I looked back to the two of them in shock, desperately hoping one of them would break the joke. But no one did. Laxus leaned forward to get closer to me and said something about trust. Levy was whispering in my ear about siblings. And Lucy was begging me with her eyes to listen to their story.

"Just hear me out Master," she pleaded. "I swear there is a good reason for all of this." I nodded slowly, as if possessed, and listened to her retelling of her original life before she became Lucy. She told me about her time with Zeref and why she came to us. She explained her memory loss and why Zeref was here with us now. She even laughed when she talked about his crying in the "void between souls," to which Zeref blushed. "All we ask, is that you hear him out. He wants to legitimately apologize for everything. Please."

"Makarov," he said. I switched my attention from Lucy to him as he slowly came around the chairs to stand in between Lucy and myself. She immediately put her hand on his shoulder as a form of protection. "I understand that every reason you hate me for now is warranted and that none of it can just be explained away by my ignorance. I killed people. I tortured others. I don't deserve forgiveness." He then bent to his knees and leaned forward until his forehead touched the ground. "However, I would like to ask for forgiveness and will accept any punishment you deem fit for a wretch such as myself."

I stared in awe at this man begging for forgiveness on my floor. Lucy had tears in her eyes as she rested her hand against his back. Everyone was staring in shock at the scene before them. Like me, I highly doubt any of them expected to see the dark wizard Zeref on his knees begging forgiveness from the master of Fairytail. I had no idea how to feel. This man had killed so many and had done so seemingly without remorse. How could I trust that he was sincere now? Lucy may have been brainwashed by him. His Shadow was inside her head this whole time!

"Master," Lucy whispered. "What do you say? We don't have much time. I must return to my home world and try to save it. Mystogan must have no idea this is happening right under his nose. I need to get back to my original magic so that I can protect our world from being destroyed by greed and a lust for power."

I looked up from Zeref to Lucy with wide eyes. "He will take you from us?"

Lucy shook her head vehemently and put Wendy down. She stepped over to me and got to her knees beside Zeref where he still kneeled. She took one of my hands in hers. Her eyes suddenly held no more of the bright innocence from when I met her. They now carried a deep and sorrowful pain one would only feel after seeing too much in their life. She still held a purity that glowed untouched beneath the surface of that pain, however. She stared at me expectantly, waiting for my answer.

"He isn't taking me, Master. I am leaving with him to save our world. It is in much danger. There are not any other beings like Zeref and myself who can help them. I came all the way here when your world was in the same danger, now I must do the same for my own world. I'm sorry. I'm not asking for permission. I am only asking for a chance for Zeref to prove himself. He has been stupid and misguided for a long time, I'll concede to that. But now he wants to redeem himself and do something good with his magic. Please allow him that much." Her voice trembled as she begged me for this chance. I could hardly believe my ears. Tears spilled over her cheeks.

"Master," Laxus rumbled from his seat where had been this entire time. "I think this would be a good idea. We have offered a second chance to every previous enemy of Fairytail who showed a sincere desire for it. From what I see, I would say that he fits that profile. I think, under the conditions of his magic being contained and restricted, it would be a good idea to allow him this much."

I stared at Laxus's surprising display of humility and generosity in confusion before turning my eyes back to the siblings in front of me. Wow that felt weird to say. They both seemed sincere in their requests and everyone seemed willing to allow this chance as well. I sighed deeply as I took Lucy's hand again and looked into her eyes.

"We will allow this chance. I will grant him pardon in the eyes of Fairytail. For now. His magic will be contained and he will not be allowed to use it. I will have to report this to the council and he will have to pay for his crimes there as well as here. Under those conditions I will allow a second chance." Please don't let me regret this.

I watched a smile grace her face once again as she jumped up and wrapped her arms around me tightly, thanking me between sobs. Zeref also stood from his position and gave me a small smile with a deep bow as a show of respect and gratitude. After a few more minutes of Lucy suffocating me, he tapped her shoulder.

"Sister, we must return," he whispered. She nodded and detached herself from me. She stood away from me and joined Zeref's side. She took his hand in hers in what seemed like an attempt at making sure this was all still real.

"Now I guess it's time I inform all of you what is to happen next," she announced to us all. "This is going to be a process so I will need your cooperation."

We all waited in anticipation of how we could help Lucy help her world. I only hope it was not wrong to trust Zeref.

 **So that's the next chapter. What do you think?**


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